Journals

Kate's Killer Thoughts and Reflections

• Week of September 11th
  • Met on friday and talked about the green zone and where we all are in our respective parts of the project chose a date to work on the solar hot water heater.
  • Worked on measuring the finned pipe for quite a while. There are other pieces of pipe rusted onto it. I tried DW-40 and straining with a pipe wrench to no avail. There may be a better way to work on this, but I haven't thought of it. We could take a hacksaw to it, since we are just adding rubber elbows. But I wasn't up for doing that yet. I got as many measurements as I could, but I wasn't sure where to put them (wiki-wise.) Also it is notable that our tank is not a cube, it is whatever the rectangular equivalent is. More importantly there is a drum set in the space that Ehren and I cleaned out next to the electric hot water heater in the basement.
• Week of September 4th
  • Met on Friday and discussed where we are with our work. Solved the two layers of seperation problem. Thought up a new design, still figuring out exactly how the heat exchangers will work.
  • Called Catron's and got an estimate from them. Turns out that they order from elsewhere but we can order whatever size we need and they'll have it in about a week. Also discovered that there are different thicknesses
• Week of August 27th
  • Sunday ate with the farmers to chat about where things are with our projects/ keep them in the know.
  • Wednesday Worked on tempered glass research:
  • Arizona Solar Center suggests low iron tempered glass.
  • Warren D. Smith suggests low-iron hi- transmission tempered glass. Power House Museum agrees
  • Later met with Ehren, Dan and Colin and we chatted about where we were will our respective responcibilities. We are going to meet on saturday. I'm waiting on Colin for the measurements for our tempered glass before calling catron's.
  • Thursday set up a link from the miller farm website to the class website... don't worry about that dan.
  • Saturday we met and compeleted a lab measuring how quickly a copper pipe can exchange heat. I was the information recorder.

• Week of August 21st
  • Tuesday: Met at the farm to try to figure out when we will meet throughout the semester. Turns out to be tricky. We chose Tuesday at 2:30 and Friday at 11. Both of which don't work at this point. Discussed heat exchangers and tried to think about whether a less of a larger tube or more of a slimmer tube will do a better job of transfering heat. Ehren's going to look into that. I'm working on tempered glass. We talked about different mounting ideas. Charlie came up with one that sounds good, ice damn free and feasible. Dan, Ehren, and I used the solar pathfinder, and happily found that only minimal shade in December will decrease the excellence of the southern roof we are planning to use.
  • Wednesday: Emaied Geoff from Thrid Sun to find out about tempered glass. Still haven't heard back.

• Week of August 14th
  • Spent the week at home in MA.

• Week of August 7th
  • Tuesday: Inside planning and brainstorming day. Discussed what we've done thus far, where we go from here. Decided that we would abandon the plan to reuse the fuel tanks, opting instead for using our other meter by meter cube storage tank salvaged from the Nicholsons a few years back. Also discussed our heat exchanger. Charlie's aluminum, finned unit seemed like a great plan at first. Later Charlie found out though, that it will scale with time, hugely reducing its heat transfering abilities with time. We also made a supply list of what will be needed to revamp the solar hot water unit.
  • Saturday: Colin and Charlie went shopping, Ehren began work and I showed up at 10 to help ( not knowing that I was expected at 8ish.) Charlie brought donuts! We made great progress with attaching blue board, and doing the first stages of gluing our tyvek on. It was a long hot day.
  • Sunday: We were all sunburned from saturday. Colin broke out the sunscreen. We finished up the tyvek, waited for charlie, and attached the wood frame which will give the glass something to fit into. It looks good. Colin and I moved it off of the grass and placed it upside down so that no water will get in. We still need to chaulk a few seams and install the glass.

• Week of July 31st
  • Tuesday I helped the Third Sun guys install part of the Dennis Solar Project. I missed most of the day because of work, and they had already accomplished a lot, but it was great to start to actually SEE how all these pieces fit together. I think the Green Zone is going to be a wonderful addition to the learning that happens here.
  • Wednesday we met out at the farm and got our lab going. Colin had already installed some release valves that allowed us to get the bubbles out of the system.
  • Later in the week I diligently wrote captions to all the pictures we took while putting together our lab. Too bad I didn't have the guts to delete half the pictures, cuz I think that is what actually needs to happen.
  • Saturday went with the class to the KIX96 tower to see the gear that RPL is mounting there. Discussed numerous details concerning what comes next in class.
  • Later that day I researched and called Interstate Products about their 250 gallon pillow tank. Left a message. pillow tank specs
  • Monday did more pillow tank research found a similar looking option to interstate:MPC Containment
• Week of July 24th
  • Talked in class about what we need to set up our test run with the solar hot water heater. Talked about what everything was, where we all thought we'd find it, and how to best assemble it. Made a plan that Ehren and I would do the shopping and then we'd all start working to put the monster together.
  • Tuesday Ehren and I went to TSC and Mendenhall's and found just about everything we needed. No plexi yet, but we need that later anyhow. The helpful guy at Mendenhall's made sure that we knew the copper tubing would be expensive before he cut it. Jelly beans were eaten and it was a successful, efficient trip.
  • Saturday class time Colin, Ehren and I reattached the yellowed panels to the hot water heater with screws and duct tape. We realized soon after that we should have tested whether it had leaks. Oops.
  • Colin and I got a little pipe tape lesson from Ehren as we fit the pipe to hose connectors on. We then attached the super hot temperature hoses. We tested whether we could indeed get water to go out one and in the other by hooking one hose up to the garden hose. It worked!
  • We soon realized that we needed a couple more things so Ehren and Colin ran off to get that while I found the specs on the pump we had purchased. They stated that the pump uses up to 8amps so it ought to still run even if our panel is putting out less than that. It also show some handy data about how much flow for how many amps, etc.
  • I put a link to that info from the wiki and updated what we had purchased and acquired until the guys got back.
  • We then cut open the barrel, fit the carefuly coiled copper tubing inside and Colin and Ehren sweated our connectors on while I took pictures and learned how ( through watching this time, not doing.... but my time will come.)
  • Some discussion occured about the best location of the panel, especially because we only had 25ft of electrical wire. We eventually decided against the roof ( since this is a temporary lab ) and both the connector we needed for the pump and a longer wire went on the shopping list.
  • We uncoiled the hoses down the stairs causing all the water that we had used to test with to shoot out. It was pretty warm!
  • We brought the barrell down and planned to meet on sunday with Ehren having gotten the things we needed.
    • Left to do: cut the hose and attach the pump and hook up the panel.
  • Sunday- Dan, Colin, Ehren and I met and attached the pump, built a stand for the panel and wired together the pump and the panel.
• Week of July 17th
  • Tuesday worked with everyone on finishing up the hot water audit. Colin and I briefly talked about reorganizing the information that we had to make it more readable/accessible. Then we were sucked into the interesting realm of Dan and Ehren's calculations, and worked on making Colin's little program work correctly.
  • Later in the week worked on organizing our hot water audit. Figured out how to make a link to another part of the wiki. (example: click LABS and then see the lab info.)
  • Divided and conquered with Colin to finish the Hot Water Audit up!
  • Monday evening I met with Dan and Colin to get an update on what was done in class, and to see what they had done. We talked about the schematic that Colin and Ehren had drawn up and anxiously awaited class the next day.
• Week of July 10th
  • Monday Dan, Ehren and I did some planning and created a little lab which gave us an idea of the average shower temperature prefered by students living at miller farm, the ratio of heated water to cold water in said shower among other things
  • We also did some further research regarding the specifics of our hot water heater and washing machine
  • Later Ehren and I tried in vain to refind a site with average inlet water temperatures.
  • Later Colin and I tried in vain to find the same site.
  • Later I found it! *US Department of Energy Residential Water Heater Analysis 1998
  • I continued to hunt for a bladder to line our disel fuel tanks. As of yet this has been unsuccessful.
  • Estimated average hot water use weekly at Miller Farm and posted.
  • Started our annual energy calender.
• Week of July 3rd
  • Continued the search for a water bladder. Thus far bladders primarily seem to be designed for stand alone use. No where have I found the suggestion of lining an old fuel tank with a bladder to reuse it for water storage. But the search continues.....
  • Read some chunks of The Solar Electric House and I'm begining to feel more comfortable with the basics of electricity and exactly what we are planning entails.
  • Called maintenance to see if they would remove the fridge that we removed from the basement.
  • Emailed Marlene again to see if there were LP bills from previous years to be had.
  • Worked on the lab write up with Ehren, Dan and eventually Colin.
  • Braved the previously uncharted waters of the wiki solo.
  • Looks like the old fuel tanks in the basement will fit out of the bulkhead.
  • AND if you are curious in the details of how one person removed their fuel tanks check out http://www.hammerzone.com/archives/hvac/oil_furnace/tank_removal/from_basement.htm

Discovery: Having a job that says that you are "on duty 24 hours a day" does not lend itself to getting a lot of classwork done. oops.

• Week of June 27th
  • Collected hot water heater info from Marlene: The water heater is electric. Installed August '98. Estimated annual cost to run it is $420
  • Investigated pillow water bladders.
  • Moved fridge outside with Charlie.
  • Other in-class activities noted in others' journal entries.
  • Handed the last year's worth of LP bills to Colin.

Dan's Dusty Tomes of Lore

• • A bunch of stuff has happened. We have ordered glass, had meetings, but the damn thing isn't on the roof yet. It'll happen in a week.
  • I did measurements for the way we're hoisting this monstrosity up on the roof. Serves me right for mentioning that we should decide how to do that. Details in h20 system.
• • Labbed it with the group -Charlie and got to sweat pipe. Had to leave early due to prior commitments, but am looking forward to see the graphs.
• • Had dinner with Farmers (not unusual, I am one) with Kate to bring everyone up to speed on what's been happening this summer. Referenced them to this site. Reminded me to update Miller Farms site.
  • Met with everyone to decide on the best way to mount the solar water heater on the roof, decided that it should not be flush to discourage water block and ice build up. Looked into commercial roof mountings for water heater, didn't find much, only a few frames apparently designed for a flat roof. One interesting find was that quite a few solar water heaters are mounted vertically which offers another possibility.
  • Played hookie in Montreal Canada, didn't find much in the way of solar energy up there though alcohol certainly makes one feel warm.
• • went to see animometer put on radio tower, ticks abounded.
  • Looked into PV mounts for our roof.http://www.realgoods.com/renew/shop/product.cfm/dp/1000/sd/1007/ts/1013841 I'm guessing that the Gr-01 is what we're looking for. Our panel is a Solarex Mx64. Solarex was bought by BP. Not sure if current mounts are backwards compatible.
  • Looked into Heat Exchangers, came maddeningly close to finding a hard statistc. Found some interesting formulae and statistics on shell and tube exchangers, found full exchangers but not components. Pthhb. Most useful sites: http://www.engineersedge.com/heat_exchanger/heat_exchanger_menu.shtml, and http://www.cheresources.com/uexchangers.shtml
  • Helped erect the PV panel support and hooked it nicely to the pump.
  • was unable to attend the sweating copper lab as many Quakers demanded my attention. Fortunately, I was able to attend Monday and Tuesday as the rest of the ingredients were hooked up.
  • was surprised at the heat that is generated by solar water, the pipe started to burn my hand.
  • needs to remember that tomorrow we get up early to see the anometer put on a radio tower
  • Charlie revealed his scheme to turn Earlham college into a mean, lean, green power producin machine. I wish him luck
  • Witnessed the partial installation of the PV panels in Dennis. Learned about aesthetics, batteries, and awesome Outback equipment.
• Just the other day
  • Helped wrangle the solar hot water heater that Charlie had squirreled away in the woods onto his truck and then onto sawhorses in our driveway. It was exceptionally nasty with ants and other crawly critters inhabiting one half and who-knows-how-old water hanging out in the other. Colin and I stripped off the insulation where the damage was with a machete and no apologies and marveled in the neatness of the shiny aluminum box before us. For all the wear on the insulation the inside looks quite nice and serviceble. Even in low sun you can feel the heat radiating from it.
  • Helped Ehren figure out calculations for water lab. Spent much time staring at a computer postulating on why the calculation for our water heater could be off so bad and when it wasn't off so bad, wondering if it was accurate. Hard to concentrate that day.
  • I feel better about this arrangement now.
  • Officially have started dreaming about solar panels and grid-tying. I am told that this is normal.
• More recently
  • Completed hot water labs with Ehren and Kate. We devised a short experiment that estimated the average shower temperature to a reasonable degree of accuracy. Those results are posted. Kate and I then brainstormed on possible days to get together and estimate the average use per person of hot water. We ended up estimating those on our own.
  • Begun reading Electricity reading. Was good to refresh.
  • Helped install light and Watt Node. It took the water heater about 6 minutes to heat the equivalent of running the hot water tap in the bathroom for 2 minutes using about .46 kW. Need more accurate measurement. Feel good about installing 220V outlet.
  • Discoveries:
    • Alex Haworth has the billing data for all of the houses for the past three years. It's printed into a neat professional binder with colors and stuff. Database!!!!!
    • The setup at Cope center doesn't look too complex. They run on a 24V system. Wonder how they manage to store wind turbine energy or even if they do.
    • Have devoted only little outside time into this project, but am unsure how to spend more time. Wonder if this might come back to bite me.
    • Garlic harvesting pays well
• Sometime
  • Looked into Line Loss re: barn and solar panels. I learned that most people call it wire loss and it has nifty tables that illustrate the relationship between wire thickness, length, and amperage transferred. I got confused with the voltages listed on the catalogue. The modules have voltages such as 16.3 that are significantly above the system voltage (which I assumed was twelve as the introduction to the products said it was) I was informed later by Charlie that voltages are extremely flexible, that the voltages listed were the peak (possibly unattainable) performance and that parallel and serial wiring will be covered in greater depth later. This put my mind at ease. From what I know now I'd venture a guess that we'll need about 360-400 feet of 4 gauge wire (approximately $700 according to unitedcopper.com) for a 48DCV system transmitting about 10 watts or 480 watts though we'll probably be running most of the time at lower than that. What I do know for sure is that we have about 45'x13' of space to work with on the barn roof. That's enough for 26 of the largest models of modules (about $15,500 according to realgoods.com)
  • pled for forgiveness
  • worked on the Watt Node with the rest of the class. Had difficulty figuring out how to hook up the display to the watt node as they were made by different manufacturers. However, after consultation with the manuals and a translation of technical language from Charlie figured out where the ground and the power went. Came to several realizations about how complex systems are set up without a kit or intended relations between products of the same manufacturer. Other items: Learned how to tin the ends of wire with solder to make them manageable. Set up learning how to weld and braze from Charlie. Have yet to arrange something more finite.