Ian Stirling wrote:
Mary Fisher wrote:

There was such a hard frost last night that the frost-stat on the ch boiler
came on for a short time. There was thick ice on all the open water in the
garden and all roofs were white.

But it's been sunny today (although cold) and I did three machine loads of
washing and we still have a cylinder full of water at just short of 60C.

Scoffers can scoff away but we're very happy -it's just a foretaste of
what's to come :-)

that it works was established long ago.


What sort of panels?
I'm contemplating doing something with the old radiators, bus windows,
and polystyrene sheet that I've got lying around.

Rads are limited by their high water capacity, making for slow
response. So solar pv as a control mechanism is out with these.
Concentration improves this a lot, and is easy to do with all metal
radiators, eg with greased silvered mylar film. Even ali foil works for
a while. Concentration improves heat availability in poor weather,
financial efficiency or ROI, and system reliability (less plumbing
failure points).

Greeenhouse poly could be used under the glass to provide cheap double
glazing. Glass absorbs uv which helps the poly last longer, plus it
protects it from mechanical stresses. How long its life would extend
like that I dont know, but its easy to replace if your panels are
ground or wall mounted rather than roof.


Currently I'm wondering how hot you could get with silly (say 5 panes)
amounts of glazing, with a system to suck air through the panes.
So that light absorbed in the panes is not lost.

I think you'll find its counterproductive. ISTR double glazing gaving
the best temp rise for one scenario I calculated. But the real point is
output per pound in, not per square metre, or in your case per material
use.

If you have a lot of glass, how about a hot air collector with one
sheet of glass and one poly?


Also wondering what the possible ratio of a fan assisted panels
radiator/panel size is.

I still cant see what you mean there


NT