Dave Lotte's posts

Here is a bit of an update for you.  The Elsid pump is working fine, after a bit of run time, it has quieted down alot, and now is hardly making any noise at all.  I have not hooked the Kill-o-watt meter to it as of yet, but it seems to be doing the job of circulating my radiant floor water just fine - no difference in house heating compared to the grundfos.

Just an update.
The information I was given about not being able to connect non-csa certified panels to the grid is correct.  Not Certified = no grid intertie.
The panels also have to have a "Canadian Content" - although, I did not get this far in my inquiries, so cannot say how much has to be "Canadian".
As for the panels that I have here, the price of the project just went up, since I will have to set up a stand alone battery based system.
Its not all bad, since I will have some hydro when the grid goes down...

I am thinking of ordering a bogart engineering TM-2020 meter.

Keeping in mind the possiblility of an "electrical inspection", could you tell me what certification this unit has ? 

Thank you for the replies.

I have three different areas to remove air from, and have bled the system, waited for a day, and bled it again, a couple of times, so I don't think the air is in there anymore. . .
I am finding, that as the weather gets cooler, and I run the pump more, the sound its making is not as loud. .  so it is possible, that it's just the noise they make (breaking it in ? )
I will keep you updated, if it fails, I have the old grundfos pump to switch back too, as both pumps fit in the same fittings. . . just in case. . .
If it keeps working, I may have to pick up a couple more of these for the solar water heater, compared to the grundfos, ya gotta save hydro !

I thought I would start this thread, and see (hopefully) if I am wrong.
I purchased 3 - 110 watt solar panels, and a 300 watt grid tie inverter, with the plan of plugging it in, and saving a bit on the hydro.
Called up the local utility company, and they were surprised when I did not want a micro fit system, just a plain feed in, if I generate a bit too much, it gets used up on the next bill. . . no checks for surplus, none of that. . .
Surprisingly, the utility company told me I could do it !  They even offered to replace my power meter with one that could run backwards for free ! 

Then they referred me to the EPA or (I believe they are called) The Electrical Power Authority.  thats when I found out that the panels, the inverter - pretty much everything I have here is unusable.  Does not meet CANADIAN code, or standard or some B.S.

I am still looking into this thing, still hope to be able to one day plug this thing into my house, but it does not look good.

Will update when I get more info.

I purchased 3 - 110 watt solar panels and a 300 watt grid intertie  inverter, thinking that I could plug them into my house, and "help" my hydro bill a bit. . .
found out that they are not csa certified, or some such thing,  so I cannot hook them to the grid. - not allowed.
So, I am thinking about setting up a small battery charging system, and running some items off grid - which will still "help" my hydro bill....
How much of the stuff on the Alt E store has a csa certification ?  I am looking for an inverter now -  around 2 kw - 12v.  I don't want to spend a week looking thru the entire web site, and find out in the end that I can't use any of it. . .

The real kicker of all this, is that I have "heard" that the powers that be, are thinking of bringing in yet another certification standard - probably to make it even harder to make your own power...

sorry if I sound a bit bitter, still getting over my panels being junk (can't use em)

I have recently purchased an elsid pump and when I installed it, I oriented the pump head horizontal with the output going to the right (higher than the input which is slightly lower on the body of the pump) so the actual electronics are facing out.  When I started it up, it had a slight rattle, but from 10 feet away, it could hardly be heard.  It is a quiet pump.
Question is, how are these pumps supposed to be orientated when installed, or does it matter ?
Just off hand, I cannot remember the pump number, but it is supposed to pump 3 gallons a minute, and according to my radiant floor manifold flow meter, it is only pumping 1 liter a minute thru 4 zones or 1 gallon a min.
Not too worried about it not doing what it says its supposed to, as the grundfos pump that it replaced (on slow speed) only pumped 1.5 litre per min. - so it should do the job.

When I ordered the pump, I also purchased the reccommended 120V to 12 V power adapter, so it should be the right size to power the unit.

Just wondering if the rattle or orientation is whats killing the output.

I am still considering purchasing another couple of these pumps for my solar water heating unit.
thanks