Quote:
Originally Posted by 2 Oldcrabs
With attic temp above 120 degrees has anyone installed a small water tank (10-20 gal) in the attic as a "preheater" to the regular hot water? Would have to be installed over a bearing wall for weight. On very hot days the regular heater may not come on.
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Great idea...
We installed solar domestic hot water in 1976 in Md and have turned on the HW heater very little.
We added PV's 6 years ago and the meter started running in reverse.
The most recent addition was groundwater loop so the device commonly known as a a money drain (heat [pump) now extracts heat from a 54 degree instead of frequent below zero air.
sine we don't use AC, summer cooling is by fan only, but we always thought that a heat exchanger could cool the place doen a bit by blowing air over 54 degree water coils?
We've got PV on our TV and Wildwood homes, but hot water seems easy.
We'll bring a couple of the old 4x8 water panel collectors and throw them on the roof or in the attic.
Here's a question we have not seen answered
Why don't more places have fans adequate to pull what would be 85-100 degree outside air through the garage (the TV Garages get very hot) into the attic, and out the top.
We have seen places with extra domes on the roofs - and are those possibly keeping the attics below 120?
Would the garage and attic then stay cooler and thus leave the living are easier to cool?
We could imagine an attic with no fans could get into the 140 range?
When in TV we rarely run the AC and heat and when we start living there more we plan to do what we do back home - use air circulation to bring air in at night and keep it in as long as we can with window control.
thanks for all the great advice and we are delighted to see fellow TV'ers concerned about energy (and money )saving
L&L