The Sun Is Shining

...so about time I did something to capitalise on it. The solar PV panels are still sat in the shed unused so I really must deploy those before too long. It's nearly Midsummer's day so we're at the time of the year to harvest that free energy.

The solar hot water collector is another step closer. Today I made up some brackets to fit the panel to the rear of the box (that's rear looking in from the doorway - it would be the front of the van, behind the cab otherwise).

Definitely in shadow as this shot was taken, but this was at 4pm and the sun has moved round towards the west. At noon, the panel is getting full sun. The radiator dropped in a treat and leaves the perfect gap between the front surface and the glazing when that goes on. The connections to the radiator will be one male end of a 15mm compression joiner allowing a nice seal into the steel threads where the valves would normally go and the ability to compression fit the connection pipework. I've previously soldered my fittings but they can fail under extremes of temperature. Compression fittings will allow the unit to be removed for maintenance if necessary. Fortunately the donated radiator had four ports with blanking plugs in two of them so I was able to remap the ports and crossflow the plumbing. You can just see the 'flow' outlet on the top left.

The hole in the panel support arm (above) will be the 'cold' return to the panel. The dimensions of the enclosure are on the snug side, so the compression fittings will need to be tightened from the inside with the pipes inserted into the olives. The green object is a tapered wedge. Two of these will allow me to seasonally adjust the radiator within the frame so I don't put any strain on the plumbing during tightening. Once the feed and outlet pipes are fitted and secure, the radiator can have a coat of matt black paint and then the glass can be affixed to the front. It would have been nice to get this all tightened up and aligned today, but I was shy one of the 15mm compression fittings. These things happen.

Internally, I tidied up some of the lighting electrics today. The temporary bulkhead fitting in the main office has now gone, and the slightly complex wiring for the two-way switching is now nice and tidy in a junction box. I took the light feed over the top of the false ceiling and fitted a rather funky spotlight unit (going begging from my folks, so it would have been be churlish to refuse it) which has had the GU10 50W halogen spot bulbs removed and replaced with low energy 5W LED bulbs.

Rather nice-looking, methinks. Nice decent light output and the ability to aim the lights as required once the internal desk and furniture is all in its final arrangement. All the electrics are pretty much finished now, so I can put some trunking around the cabling from the consumer unit and make it all hidden and tidy.

It's the middle of summer and I tend to knock it on the head for the day at around 5.30pm so I won't benefit from the lights for a while yet - there's plenty of natural light through the translucent roof and the window, but when the evenings do begin to draw in, I'm ready to rock and roll.