Alan Gonzalez's posts

Posted by Alan Gonzalez on Apr 1, 2010 04:49 pm

#1 -  Renewable Energy > RE General Discussion > Re: Solar Thermal Hot Water and Cold Air Return Heat Exchanger
Interesting to hear your results.  I had read about your system, though I didn't realize exactly what you were doing.  I have a 3200 sqft house with two furnaces.  We're in lower michigan so we have a pretty cold winter. 

it hards to know what to expect by integrating the solar hot water (contemplating solar air also) into the furnace.  But that's why I was asking to see what others were able to do and how well it worked. 

Complicating my installation is the long run from the water heater to the furnace.  I also have long duct runs in the house, so I'm not sure how hot the air needs to be coming out of the furnace yet (will measure my existing temp shortly) to replace or supplement the current function.

Both yours and the previous poster mentioned using a bypass.  I had initially thought of pre-heating the air going into the furnace to offload some of it's work.  I have a high efficiency furnace and so it should smartly reduce gas consumption to heat the air.  I am not that much of a heat wizard though.  I'm more of a electrical engineer so I'm a little worried about how best to set it up. 

I also have the option of using an HRV to reclaim heat from the inside.  They installed a Make-Up air control but it goes directly to the outside of the house.  So in the winter I get some cold air entering and in the summer I get some hot air entering.. which makes the systems work hotter.  I hear the HRV could help a bit by warming/cooler that air.

 

Posted by Alan Gonzalez on Mar 30, 2010 02:10 pm

#2 -  Renewable Energy > RE General Discussion > Solar Thermal Hot Water and Cold Air Return Heat Exchanger
I have been wondering about a system that is talked about briefly, but hardly explained in much details in terms of pros/cons. 

I was thinking about running the hot water from my solar hot water system to a water to air heat exchanger located in the cold air return duct of my main furnace.  Anybody have any insight into this?  The idea would be to heat the air going into the furnace to offload it's work.  I guess something could be said also about using a solar air heating system to do the same thing, but directly sending the air to the cold air return.

In terms of the hot water system, I can foresee some questions. 

How much heat would I loose in the run to the ducts? 
What type of efficiency would I gain?
What is the sizing I would need on the hot water to run it in the winter?

and lastly
Would I need to isolate the duct with a separate blower to make it so the furnace intake isn't starved for air (the heat exchanger would slow down the air flow some).

Any help would be great.
 

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