Thursday 4 June 2015

Another Day With A Dead Phone

Sorry...no more pictures just yet. Phone was flat again today.

What's been doing? The whole floor has now been painted so we're grey throughout, although the main office could probably do with a second coat. Pretty much a pottering day today, using up the last of whatever materials I have to hand - my weekend away down South has kept me out of suppliers!

I took the two long pallet-wood slats down yesterday. Just under 8' long each so I figured they'd come in handy for something. Quite what, I wasn't sure but today an opportunity presented itself. Having got the water supply sorted (and it rained earlier this week so I was greeted with a full tank today) and the electrics all commissioned, tunes in place and loo all finished I was looking at uses for the leftover materials to keep me tootling along. 

A while ago, we were 'donated' an unwanted central heating radiator that has been sat for a year leaning against the deck up at The Manor and looking a little unloved. There was a plan to use it as a solar thermal collector and the need for hot water now the cold supply is in has crossed my mind again so there was an opportunity to fettle summat. When I ran a ruler over it, it measured 57" long and a shade under 23" tall. Oooh...I could cut a 60" long piece and a 24" short piece from each pallet slat with a mite left over, so that's what I did.

Screwed together to make a 4" deep rectangular carcass, I took the tatty bit of ply that used to form the backboard of the van body, chopped a 60" x 25" piece out, and I made a 'tray'. This then got a couple of rubs over with the sander and a couple of coats of stain and an inner liner made from the Recticell insulation board. I now have a box to install the radiator into. A coat of satin black for heat absorption and a sheet of glazing over the front to act as a greenhouse, and I will have the perfect solar thermal collector.

I was a bit worried about the orientation of the box, but it would appear that today (4th June) at noon, the sun was full-on on the rear wall of the box. Looking at the shadows out the front, the rear wall is pretty much south-facing at noon-ish, so in fact, the orientation is pretty good. I'll mount the collector on the angle brackets on the back wall and arrange a couple of struts to tilt the panel up at about 35 degrees. The heat exchanger, pump and pump controller I already have from the old Toolshed wood-fired system, so I'll re-purpose that for my solar DHW system.

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