With the winter season fast approaching for many of us, thoughts come to mind of things we can quickly and inexpensively do to save some energy (and cash) this winter. One of those ways is installing a programmable thermostat.

A programmable thermostat really is a great thing. Why, you ask? Because, it takes care of us and increases the comfort of your house. Why wake up to a cold house when you could have it heat up a short time before you get up? Its just one less thing you have to remember to do every morning and night.

But, thats not all, a programmable thermostat also helps save energy. It sets your house temperature based on a schedule you setup. It never forgets to turn the heat down (or up). Can you say that for yourself? I certainly can’t.

So, today we are looking at how to retrofit an older mechanical thermostat to a nice new programmable thermostat that we got from Trane. The XL800 thermostat will be replacing an old Honeywell manual thermostat. The whole process is very simple and pretty much anyone can do it.

The first step is to go turn off the furnace, boiler, heat pump, or whatever device heats or cools your home.

Next, we remove the old thermostat. For this specific thermostat, you first pull the outer bezel straight off. Then, unscrew the few screws holding it to the backing plate.

With the thermostat removed, unscrew the backing plate from the wall. Carefully pull the wires out a bit so you have room to work. Then, unscrew the wires from the backing plate. Be very careful not to let the wires fall back into the wall. If this happens, you have a lot more work on your hands.

Now, refer to the instructions on how to wire the new thermostat backing plate. Of course, the boiler I was working on is so old, the wiring for it isn’t included in the manual. However, a little bit of googling fixed that problem fairly quickly. With the new backing plate wired, you can mount it to the wall. Also, it is a good idea to pack the hole in the wall that the wires come through with something that will block air. Cold air could possibly come through the hole and throw off the thermostat’s temperature readings.

Thats really all there is too the physical installation. This installation would have taken less than 30 minutes had I not had to figure out the ancient wiring. You’d think two wires would be easy to figure out…

You of course have to program the thermostat now. I would just like to take a second to dispel the ever popular myth that ‘it takes more energy to reheat a cold house than to leave it warm’ is completely false and ridiculous. Physics laws specifically tell us that the greater the difference in temperature between the inside and outside, the greater the heat loss (or gain in summer). You keep the house warmer and it is going to loose more heat, period.

Once the thermostat is programmed, you can push it against the backing plate and it will snap into place and begin its scheduled programming.

Post from: EcoRenovator.org

Installing a Programmable Thermostat

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The holes have been bored, and the trenches have been dug. Now, it is time to put the tubing into the ground to build the loop field. This means connecting up all the loops that have been put down into the bore holes and running them back to the house.

This is the layout AC Hacker planned initially. The unused green circles allow for expansion should it ever be needed. The current layout also allows him to split the loop into two parallel circuits if need be.

A little more work needed to be done before the connections between the bore loops could be made. First off, the trencher did its job, but a lot of dirt fell back into the trenches. A bit of shop vac work seemed to do the trick just right to clean the loose dirt out of the trenches.

AC Hakcer also had to take some time to dig out the areas between the trenches and bore holes. He says that it is worth the time trying to get the trenches dug as close as possible to the bore holes since it is a lot of manual work to try and dig it out without the trencher.

With the trenches cleaned out it is time to do some more welding. This is how AC Hacker did most of it. The fixture he made was attached to a cinder block that was laid at the bottom of the trench to stabilize things. After each weld, he would wait a few minutes for it to cool and then pressure test it to make sure there were no leaks.

Here are a cople examples of the welds made. They both ended up holding up to the pressure test, so the welding continued.

One thing AC Hacker added to the tubing that connected the bore holes was insulation. The purpose of the insulation is to lessen the temperature variation of the soil around the tubes that are closer to the surface. As you get deeper, the temperature remains much more constant. In winter, the water will heat up in the tubing that is far down in the bore hole, but as it comes back up to the surface the tubing will be colder. The insulation will prevent some of these kinds of losses.

With the welding all taken care of, the trenches were filled back in, and the loop field was completed!

For more details about the tools and project check out AC Hacker’s forum thread that tracks all of his progress.

Post from: EcoRenovator.org

DIY Ground Source Heat Pump – Part 8: Building The Loop Field

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As I mentioned in the pressure test results, the basement was especially bad. There was tons of air leaking under my basement door as I did the test. So bad, in fact, that I decided to dedicate a separate article for it.

As you see the pictures, keep in mind that the basement is not insulated. So, any cold air that can get in to the basement, and then into the first or second floor is not a good thing. Add to the fact that the basement ceiling isn’t all insulated either, and the problem just gets worse.

This is one of the first sights you see as you come down the stairs. The other two windows in the basement are in roughly the same shape. They could really use some attention.

Next, at the bottom of the stairs, you see this against the wall. It looks like some insulation was stuffed into the gap there. However, sealing against the sill plate in the basement is a huge deal according to many articles. I can guarantee this has not been done on my house.

This is another typical sight, electrical connections just being run through gaping holes. The one actually is right behind the basement door and leads up to the second floor.

Around the electrical box we actually do have insulation in the ceiling, but still gaping holes all around the field stone walls.

Here we can see plumbing going up through the basement ceiling into a wet wall. The gap next to the 2×4 runs the length of half the basement allowing air circulation up through the walls of the house.

Again, we have problems with plumbing being run to the first floor. This time its a huge hole that needs to be filled in.

Lastly, we are looking at the joists running out over the field stone basement walls. I’ll have to find a way to seal this up to prevent air infiltration too.

So, the basement really needs a lot of work. I’ll have to work on every thing mentioned here and more as I go along. I imagine that I am loosing quite a bit of heat to it in the winter. Along with those big losses, I’ll see large gains in taking care of the problems.

Post from: EcoRenovator.org

ER Project House: Basement Pressure Test Results

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Last time, we talked about the efficiency impact of defrosting a freezer. Defrosting gave us around a 5% reduction in energy usage. This time, we will be seeing what reducing the freezer temperature can do for us.

The temperature adjustment for my freezer is on the front end of the left side of the freezer. You can see it in the first picture. As the freezer sat, the dial was set to 4 out of 7. At the end of our last article, this setting was using 1.15 kWh per day.

At setting number 4, the freezer stayed right around -15°F (-26°C) at the very bottom. People that are off the grid tend to keep their freezers around 0°F (-18C) to save energy yet not compromise the length of time food will keep in the freezer.

So, as you can probably imagine, I simply turned the freezer all the way down to the 1 setting. I was a bit afraid about the temperature increasing too much, but it really didn’t rise all that much. I took temperature readings after a few days and the freezer at the bottom was now around -12°F (-24°C) and roughly 0°F (-18°C) at the top. I was kind of surprised that it didn’t increase the temperature more than that. However, I was even more surprised when I saw that the freezer was now only using 1.06 kWh per day. That is a solid 8% decrease from the 1.15 kWh per day it had been using at the end of our last article. So, to date we have decreased the power consumption of the freezer by 12.5% from the original 1.21 kWh per day.

For as simple as this is to do, everyone should really take the 5 minutes to go to their freezer and just turn the dial down. Double checking the actual temperature a few days later is a good idea. If you get too far above 0°F (-18°C), you start to see a drop off in how long the food will stay good. Organizing commonly used food to the top and longer term storage food items to the bottom is a great idea if you want to start increasing temperatures further. However, it would be my guess that most freezers out there are probably running much colder than they need to be.

Post from: EcoRenovator.org

Efficiency Impact of Adjusting Freezer Temperature

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Last year, I hung a new basement door for the outside access. This was needed because the original door was wooden and had begun to rot. I had installed weather stripping along the door stop and left it at that because I had many other things to take care of. Now, with fall right around the corner, my attention has been drawn back to the door.

The first thing that caught my attention was the view I had of the door every time I came down the stairs. Staring me in the eye was that sliver of light. This is never a good thing when you’re thinking about how you can further seal up your house (considering it has just been done last year). So, I set about fixing this eye sore.

The first thing to do was hammer the weather stripping back down. Apparently, over the year, the tiny nails that held in the weather stripping had backed out a bit. This is probably due to the fact that you had to slam the door to get it shut all the way. I also double checked that the weather stripping was sealing properly. To do this, I used a piece of paper and shut the door on it. If it was tough to pull out, great. If it pulled out without any effort, I adjusted the weather stripping.

The next step was to caulk around the door stop piece. This was quick and easy. However, I also noticed that my hammering on the weather striping nails had caused the aluminum rail to buckle slightly creating a small gap. So, I went ahead and caulked that edge up too.

I didn’t just stop there though. Just to be sure that it was all sealed well, I caulked the inside of the door stop as well. This should add some extra assurance against leaks as well as help insulate a small amount.

To top it all off, I needed to add some way to seal the bottom of the door. I’m sure this contributes a fair amount of the cold air getting into the house in winter. So, I tried to put a strip of stick on weather stripping on the door itself so it seals against the side of the lowest step. I’m not too fond of this idea, but we’ll see how it holds up.

Post from: EcoRenovator.org

ER Project House: Door Sealing

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Photo: That Canadian Grrl

With summer winding down, I find myself thinking more about what I would like to do to the house before winter. You know, the things I probably should have worked on during the summer, but it was just too nice out. In my case, I am mostly interested in sealing up the house. Being as old as it is, it leaks pretty badly.

Air infiltration is a huge source of heat loss. Many articles say 30% or more of a home’s heat loss can be from air infiltration. Just imagine being able to reduce your heating bill by 30%! The good thing about air leaks though is that they are fairly easy and cheap to fix. So, today we have a list of five great resources on home sealing.  These are the same articles I am using to do the work on my own house.

Energy Star’s DIY Guide to Sealing and Insulating
A great reference that covers all of the major things to seal on your house and how to insulate properly. It is packed full of pictures describing how to do what the article explains.

EEBA’s Home Energy Checklist
A great overall checklist to go through with your house to ensure energy efficiency. It also has some very informative breakouts that explain common myths about energy efficiency.

DOE’s Air Sealing Guide hosted by BuildItSolar.com
A quick guide on sealing.  It not only outlines how to seal an existing house, but how to seal while building a structure as well.

Lowes – Home Sealing Product Guide
Lowes actualy has a fairly decent and quick chart on what sealing materials are avaliable and what to use where. They also have a nice guide for what caulk to use where.

DIY Air Pressure Test
This is an essential part of locating where the air leaks are coming from. Without doing this, you’re just shooting in the dark.

After reading these resources, you should be quite capable of sealing up your house. Good luck!

We would love to hear about your progress, so please feel free to stop over at the forum and tell us how it goes.

Post from: EcoRenovator.org

How to Seal Your House – 5 Excellent Resources

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Since getting the results of the DIY home pressure test, I’ve identified a couple areas that need work on the house. The first thing on the list is to take a look at the windows on the second story of the house. They are older single pane windows that are still in decent condition. However, they are pretty leaky.

The first step was to take care of the gaping holes above each window. Some of them measured over 1/4 inch. With the hollow walls I have, this leads to huge amounts of air infiltration. So, I used a mixture of caulk and expanding foam to fill the cracks depending on the width. I used expanding foam for the larger gaps and caulk for the smaller ones.

The next step was to make sure that air wasn’t just going to get around the newly laid caulk and leak out the other side of the boards. This required more caulk around the trim boards.

Now that the leaking around the window trim was taken care of, it was time to look at the window sealing against the sill plate. This was a very easy fix with some stick on weather stripping.

There are two important things to make sure of when you are installing weather stripping. First, make sure you cut the weather stripping to the full length of the bottom of the window. The weather stripping will now hold the window up higher, and if the weather stripping does not extend the full length of the window, you will have created a gap for air to leak through. Also, make sure to put weather stripping on the top and the bottom window on double hung windows. Both of the windows have to seal against the sill plates.

Post from: EcoRenovator.org

ER Project House: Window Sealing

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Quite recently, AC Hacker finished digging all the bore holes necessary for his heat pump system. So, the next step in the digging process was to dig the trenches that will connect the bore holes to each other.

To do this job, AC Hacker decided to visit the local power tool rental shop. He ended up selecting the machine above because it looked somewhat more maneuverable than the other types he saw there. As he later found out, this was not the case.

Even though the trencher was very hard to move around, once it was in place, the hydraulic controls took over and the machine did its job well.

During the digging, great care was taken when the machine neared the tubing that was already in the ground.

With the trenches dug, AC Hacker comments on how he never wants to see a shovel again and happily moves on. The next step was to start connecting up the bore holes. This is currently still in progress, but he says half the field is done.

AC Hacker also mentioned he thought he would have to use barbed fittings in some places in the system. However, when he tested them he was not happy. He commented that welding is not only cheaper, but it is also easier, more durable, faster, and more likely to yield a leak free connection. So, he is welding where ever possible.

For more details about the tools and project check out AC Hacker’s forum thread that tracks all of his progress.

Post from: EcoRenovator.org

DIY Ground Source Heat Pump – Part 7: Digging Trenches

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When I posted the DIY Home Pressure Test, I said I was going to try it out on my house. I knew it was pretty leaky not only because it is old, but because the attic work I did late last year had a much smaller effect on my monthly gas usage than I had anticipated.

I started the test by turning on the two bathroom exhaust fans as well as the kitchen range vent. These three vents worked quite well to detect leaks in my opinion.

I tried to use an incense stick, but that really didn’t work out well. For starters, one incense stick just doesn’t put off that much smoke. So, I tried three at once. Even then, you have to put the sticks where you think the leak might be. Then you have to wait a bit for the smoke to raise to see if there is any disturbance. I quickly tired of the incense sticks and tried out the wet hand route. I just grabbed a rag, got it wet, and started walking around. With a wet hand, it is very easy to detect even a small breeze coming through a hole, and its really just a lot faster.  Using this method would be my suggestion.

The experts say that most leaks are not from around doors and outlets, but are from the attic and basement. Those are the major leaks to take care of right away. So, with that info in hand, I headed towards the basement.  The first place I checked to see if there was noticeable leaking from the basement was the basement door.  There is a sizable gap below the door and with the exhaust fans running there was a major breeze coming from the gap.  I won’t go into detail on the basement as I’ll be covering it in its own.

After the basement, I checked out my first floor.  There wasn’t anything major here.  This isn’t surprising considering most of this floor has been remodeled, and the previous owners did a pretty good job.  There were just a few small leaks here and there around outlets, doors and windows.

Moving on, I went up to the second floor. I noticed a good breeze coming from the wall outlets and switches.  Keep in mind that I have hollow walls on my second floor, so I was anticipating this being a fairly large area for leaks.  To remedy this, it would be fairly simple to install switch/outlet gaskets.  I had installed these on some of my outlets upstairs, but had added a few more outlets and those were leaking a fair amount of air where as the ones with the gaskets had no detectable leaks.

The next area I found that was leaking on my house was around the window trim.  Again, with the hollow walls, any gaps around the window trim would lead to leaks.  Unfortunately, all of my windows upstairs have huge gaps at the top of them as shown above.  I’m not sure why this is, but that is the way it is.  I’ll definitly be looking to shoot in some expanding foam and caulk around the edges of the rest of the trim board to make sure its all sealed.

The other area of the windows that I found leaks were where the window seals against the sill plate.  These older windows I have don’t have gaskets on the bottom of them.  So, you’re gaurenteed that even if the two surfaces are perfectly parallel, you’ll still have at least some leakage.  If the surfaces are misaligned, as shown above, you’ll have even greater leaks.

With this simple test, I have been able to locate the key areas of leakage in the house.  It really didn’t take long at all either once I figured out using the wet hand method works best by far.  I would highly recommend this test to all our readers out there weather your house is new or old.  Air leakage is a huge problem as far as energy efficiency goes, and fixing it is so much cheaper than buying more insulation or buying fancy heating and cooling systems.  I can say without doubt, sealing up these leaks will save me a lot of energy this coming winter.

Post from: EcoRenovator.org

DIY Home Pressure Test Results

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All of the materials used to build the dehydrator are recycled from things Ben already had.  He made the frame out of scrap 2×4s.  The white paneling is foam core board recycled from a sign.  The glass piece on the top is from a thermal pane window that a friend was scrapping.  The screens, used as trays, are from the same windows.

The actual dehydrating is helped by two salvaged computer fans.  The fans are run off of a 12V battery that is charged by the solar panel shown in the picture.  During the day, the sun charges the battery and heats up the box to speed the dehydrating process.  During the night the fans continue to run off of the battery.

Ben says the dehydrator works pretty good.  All you need to do is prepare the food, throw it in the dehydrator, wait a couple of days and take it out.  So far he has done tomatoes, basil, apples, pears, and peppers.

For more info on the dehydrator, check out Ben’s forum thread about it.

Post from: EcoRenovator.org

DIY Solar Powered Food Dehydrator

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Now that AC Hacker has his home made plastic welder all put together, he could start doing some welding.  But, how was he to know if his welds were all sealed perfectly tight?  They certainly need to be, otherwise the system will leak.  Well, another tool and some testing told him what he needed to know.

First off, he had to weld up all the loop ends that go at the bottom of the bore holes.  These pieces each consist of five total welds once in place.  Three of the welds are at the ends to form the loop.  Two more welds connect the loop ends to the rest of the tubing.

Here is the pressure tester that AC Hacker used to test his welds.  It consists of a barbed fitting to connect to the tubing, a pressure gauge to ensure that the tube is pressurized, a tire valve to fill the tubing up with air, and a plug for the other end of the tubing.  All he has to do is connect the the tubing up to the two barbed fittings, tighten the hose clamps, and pressurize it.

The pressure gauge alone would show leaks, but it would take some time to show up as the pressure slowly drops.  To speed up the testing process, AC Hacker decided to put the tubing into a bucket of water.  The escaping air bubbles would be quite visible.  The picture above shows a good solid weld.

As you can see, a leak is very visible once in the water.

All in all, with AC Hacker’s home made welder, he only found two bad welds in the 90 he had to make.  Not bad at all!  However, he emphasized that testing every single weld is absolutely necessary since one leak will kill the entire system.

For more details about the tools and project check out AC Hacker’s forum thread that tracks all of his progress.

Post from: EcoRenovator.org

DIY Ground Source Heat Pump – Part 6: Testing Plastic Welds

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In the last article we talked about what a thermal differential controller is and what the goal of this project is. This time we will learn about the necessary components needed to make the controller.

The first thing we need is a programmable controller. The programmable controller will monitor the temperature sensors for us and send signals to turn the pump on and off. It will let us adjust the on and off temperature differential, as well as allow us to do other things like set a maximum tank temperature, or even use it for data logging if we wanted. For this project, I decided to go with the Ardunio. Its a popular micro controller that is very versatile. It is easy to use and is quite inexpensive. You can get a fully assembled and tested unit like the one above for around $30. There are also stripped down versions or kits that you must solder together that can reduce this cost.

The next thing on the list is a relay of some sort.  The relay will receive the signal from the controller to turn the pump on and off and do the actual switching for us.  Which relay you use will differ depending on your specific setup.  If you are planning on using an AC pump, you’ll want an AC relay.  If you are planning on using a DC pump, you’ll want a DC relay.  After you know that, we have another choice to make.  We can go with a mechanical style relay to save some money, or go with a more expensive solid state relay (shown above).  The downside to the cheaper option is that it is more prone to failure and will not last as long.  However, their failure rate and longevity are usually nothing to be concerned with.  A mechanical relay will only cost you about $2 where as a solid state relay will run about $13.

The other option is to try to find a relay that will accommodate both AC and DC pumps.  This will be a bit trickier to find, but keeping the design the same between the two will be worth a bit more hunting.  This is what I am currently looking into.

Photo: ッ Zach Hoeken ッ

The last thing on the list is sensors. Most commercial controllers use 10k thermistors. I see no reason why we can’t use them for this project as well. This gives some flexibility in the design and assembly. You can order 10k thermistor sensors that are already premade for around $13. Alternatively, you can buy a bare thermistor for around $0.60 and make your own sensor casing for it. This is the route I will be pursuing for this project to keep the cost low.

For more info on the controller, visit the thermal differential controller forum thread.

Post from: EcoRenovator.org

DIY Thermal Differential Controller – Part 2: Component Selection

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About a year ago when I bought my house, the previous owners offered the chest freezer that was downstairs for a reasonable price. We gladly accepted. Ever since, it has been chugging away eating up whatever amount of electricity it needs to keep itself cool. Only recently have I begun to examine it and look into what can be done to increase its efficiency. Throughout the next few weeks and months I’ll be doing what I can to get it running a bit more efficiently.

The first thing I noticed when we started using it was that it was obviously a manual defrost freezer. This was quite apparent from the 1-2 inches of ice/snow on the side of the freezer. This pleased me as I know manual defrost freezers are generally more efficient. However, at the time we moved in, it probably needed to be defrosted. Now, a year later, it really needed to be defrosted.

Before defrosting, I hooked up my Kill A Watt and monitored the energy consumption for just over 9 days. The readings came to 11.17 kWh over 222 hours. This translates to 1.21 kWh a day. With the baseline established for the freezer, I could go ahead and defrost it.

This was the delightful image you saw every time you opened up the freezer.  As you can see, there is a bit of build up on the inside.

As I started to remove the food to defrost the freezer, I figured I better measure how thick this stuff actually was. As it turns out, it was almost three inches thick!

With all the food out, you can see how much of the freezer wall was actually covered in ice. Thankfully, the amount of ice didn’t cover the entire inside wall.

After the freezer was defrosted and all the food was back in, I let it run for a few days to get back down to temperature. I then hooked the kill a watt back up to it and let it run for another 216 hours. This time around, it only used 10.41 kWh. A little math shows us that this is 1.15 kWh per day. So, the defrosting looks to have drop the energy usage roughly 5%.

This simple task will save a hair under 22 kWh a year or 1.83 kWh per month. I was honestly hoping for a bit more than that. But, I do have a few more things planned.

Post from: EcoRenovator.org

Efficiency Impact of Defrosting a Chest Freezer

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In part 4 of our series, AC Hacker had just found out he could weld plastic without too much trouble. He used a skillet on a stove, heated up two short pieces of tubing, and pushed them together forming what you see above. He noticed that the plastic started to melt right around 300°F (149°C). So, he figured he could think of some way to create an inexpensive and more portable tool to do the same thing.

Not being too sure of the quality of the weld, AC Hacker took the piece he had welded up to the local machinist. There, they tried to tear the pipe apart. What they found out was that it tore everywhere else but the weld. So, the weld was in fact strong enough.  After tossing ideas around with the machinist, AC Hacker decided to take the skillet to the band saw creating two rectangle pieces for his would be tool.

On his way home, AC Hacker stopped by the local Goodwill store to look for electric heating elements.  This is an idea the machininst had offered.  He found a nice small one in a mini-sandwhich maker.  This small set of heaters would prove perfect for his tool.

With the heaters in hand, AC Hacker made a return trip to the machinist.  Previously, the machinist had offered to mill slots in the skilletplates for the heater.  So, that is exactly what he did.

To add temperature control to the new tool, AC Hacker used an electric skillet temperature control.  This allows him to dial in whatever temperature he finds to work best for welding the plastic tubing.

The last step for the tool was to add some electrical insulation to prevent getting shocked while using it, and to adjust the temperature for the actual welding.  Once the temperature was set, AC Hacker taped up the temperature dial so it would not accidently get changed.

With the tool done, he needed a way to hold the pipes square to get a solid weld.  The above is the welding jig that he came up with.  After making it, he noted that such a nice setup is not absolutely needed and that one could easily make something out of wood that would work just as well.

With these new tools in hand, AC Hacker is setup to create the welds needed for the heat pump system.

For more details about the tools and project check out AC Hacker’s forum thread that tracks all of his progress.

Post from: EcoRenovator.org

DIY Ground Source Heat Pump – Part 5: Welding Plastic

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Photo: BotheredByBees

I’ve been looking into solar hot water systems for home heating and domestic hot water purposes for a while now.  I simply love the idea that I could have free, clean heat and hot water.  I’m also a big fan of Gary’s work over on BuildItSolar.com. Reading his site, I noticed that many people are interested in his $1000 solar hot water system. Its a great experimental setup. However, the cost of the thermal differential controller eats up a lot of that budget.

So, what the heck is a thermal differential controller anyway? A thermal differential controller is what is used to control the pump between the solar panel and hot water tank. It senses when the solar panel is hotter than the tank and starts up the pump so that the water can get warmed up. When the panel cools off, the controller turns the pump off so it doesn’t cool down the tank.

It sounds pretty simple doesn’t it? A brain box to turn the pump on and off. If you look at the price of a commercial controller you’d think that there is a lot more to it. These controllers start at $130 and go up from there. $130 is a bit high for a glorified switch in my book.  That price also does not include the sensors that are needed to run the controller.  Each sensor is an additional $13, and you need two.  So, that brings the minimum price for a controller up to $156.

So, I’ve decided to develop my own thermal differential controller. There aren’t many parts, and the parts are fairly inexpensive. The goal here is to make DIY instructions on how to make your own thermal differential controller for less than half of what a commercial controller costs.

For more info on the controller, visit the forum thread here. I’d love some suggestions.

Post from: EcoRenovator.org

DIY Thermal Differential Controller (Solar Hot Water Pump Controller)

Related posts:

1. DIY Thermal Differential Controller – Part 2: Component Selection
2. Experimental PEX Solar Hot Water Collector
3. DIY Solar Water Heating Using Fresnel Lenses

With a capable drilling rig, AC Hacker turned to selecting parts for the rest of the system. Specifically, we’ll be looking at selecting the tubing that must be laid in the ground.

PVC and CPVC are not a good choice. They both get brittle eventually and will crack under pressure. Pex would be a good material. However, with the way it is made, it is not possible to weld it together. Copper would also work well, but it is very expensive.

So, that left AC Hacker with what he had read about many small residential systems using, HDPE (high density polyethylene). Its that black water tubing you’ve probably seen at the home improvement store. AC Hacker found that HDPE comes in two schedule ratings, 40 and 60. The 40 was too thin to think about using as he feared it might be crushed by the weight of the soil on it. But, the schedule 60 looked like it would be up to the job.

The next hurdle is that HDPE needs to be welded together. AC Hacker looked into what kind of tools would be needed for this. He found McElroy makes a tool called the MiniMc that is made specifically for welding plastic pipe. The bad thing is it costs $2000. He also found that even renting it was very expensive.

Since that would blow the budget for this project out of the water, AC Hacker decided to look into how hard it is to weld the tube without this tool. He picked up a teflon skillet from the local junk store and heated it up on his stove at home. He placed a couple short pieces of HDPE on the skillet and monitored the skillet’s temperature with an IR thermometer. At about 300°F (149°C) he noticed a bead forming around the tube. He picked two pieces up and pushed them together. The above was his first result. So, plastic welding is indeed possible without the very expensive tool.

For more details about the tools or project check out AC Hacker’s forum thread that tracks all of his progress.

Post from: EcoRenovator.org

DIY Ground Source Heat Pump – Part 4: Selecting in Ground Tubing

Related posts:

1. DIY Ground Source Heat Pump – Part 5: Welding Plastic
2. DIY Ground Source Heat Pump – Part 6: Testing Plastic Welds
3. DIY Ground Source Heat Pump – Part 2: Making A Drilling Rig

To make his life a bit easier, AC Hacker decided to build an electric drilling rig.  He did dig a few holes with the manual drilling rig and it worked fine.  However, he calculated that he needed around 200 feet of borehole and decided to make something better.

The frame of the drilling rig is made mostly out of square tubing with some plate here and there.

The head for the drilling rig consists of another close fitting square tube that slides over the frame tube.  This allows the head to be moved up and down with the red wench you can see in the last picture.  Attached to the head is a 1/4 horsepower 25:1 gear motor.

Attached to the gear motor is a home made flexible coupling.  This dampens shock loads and allows for some misalignment in the system.  The coupling is made from two flanges, a rubber disk, some bolts with nyloc nuts, and rubber and regular washers.  This coupling has gone through a few design changes and this is the one AC Hacker has settled on (for now at least).

The last piece we have here is a fancy water connection.  The drill shaft must rotate, but you don’t want your water hose to rotate with it.  So, AC Hacker constructed this swivel adapter.  It is made from a PVC compression T, two sealed bearings and a piece of pipe. Construction details of the swivel can be found here.

In addition to the drilling rig, AC Hacker made a few other hand made tools.  The pointed tool works well for chipping through clay and the bladed tool works well for cutting through roots.  He also made the shop vacuum extensions shown above that works well for removing dirt and even rocks from the holes.  These tools have allowed him to drill 11 of the 16 holes that are necessary for his heat pump system.

For more details about the tools or project check out AC Hacker’s forum thread that tracks all of his progress.

Post from: EcoRenovator.org

DIY Ground Source Heat Pump – Part 3: An Improved Drilling Rig

Related posts:

1. DIY Ground Source Heat Pump – Part 2: Making A Drilling Rig
2. DIY Ground Source Heat Pump – Part 4: Selecting in Ground Tubing
3. DIY Ground Source Heat Pump – Part 5: Welding Plastic

At the end of our last article, I had just finished rebuilding the mowing deck with new bearings.  This was my attempt to lower the amperage draw of the mowing deck.  Lower amperage means smaller batteries or longer run times which was my main concern.

Thankfully, Ben Nelson came to my aid again.  A few days ago, he lent me a couple of his batteries.  These are group 31 100Ah gel cell batteries.  They aren’t in great condition, but would be very similar to the batteries I had been thinking about using.  These are big batteries and weigh in at about 70 lbs each.

The first test I did was only with two batteries.  This 24V test let me know that 24V just isn’t enough power to cut with my mower.  The motor slowed way down and the blades just wouldn’t spin fast enough.  I did this just to get a feel for how other voltages worked out on the mower.  The driving speed at 24V was just right, so I should be able to size my drive pulley for any other voltage.

The second test I did with three batteries or 36V.  I know it looks funny, but its what I had on hand at the time and it is just for testing.  This test went off great.  The pulleys are still over sized, so amperage draw is probably a bit higher than it normally would be.  Anyway, with this setup I was driving around at around 10-20A.  Engaging the mowing deck this time around only increase amperage pull by another 25A!  The rebuild was a complete success and dropped the mowing deck amperage draw by 66%!  Continuing on with testing, when cutting grass and moving at a normal cutting speed, it was pulling around 50-75A.

This is the realistic load I was after.  This is the number that I will size the battery pack for.

EcoRider Build History

Post from: EcoRenovator.org

EcoRider: A Second Test Run

Related posts:

1. EcoRider: First Test Run
2. EcoRider: Taming the Amps
3. EcoRider: Bringing Things Together

In our first article, we gave a very brief overview of AC Hacker’s heat pump system and the testing he had done. Now, we will dive deeper into the process he is taking to make up the system.

For the heat pump system, AC Hacker decided to go with a water to water design.  This worked best for him because it requires less length of tube to be put into the ground.  More tubing in the ground obviously increases cost, and even putting tubing in the ground is a major problem for DIY heat pump projects.

In order to get the tubing into the ground, boreholes need to be drilled.  The average person doesn’t have any well drilling equipment handy so something must be made.  The first version of AC Hacker’s drilling rig is show above.  It is comprised mostly of pipe and a few fittings.

The top of the drill is a 4 way fitting with three pipes connected to it.  Two of the pipes are for handles to turn it.  The long pipe goes to the drilling tip, and the top goes to a swivel fitting that connects up to a garden hose.

The business end of the drill is just the end of a pipe with some steel plate welded to it.  The water from the garden hose blasts out the tip of the pipe and flushes out the debris from drilling, assists with drilling, and also stops the hole from caving in when drilling through sandy soil.

With this drilling rig, AC Hacker was able to drill down 13 feet in about 35 minutes.  Not bad for a hand tool.  However, at 13 feet, he started hitting hardpan.  Hardpan is clay mixed with gravel.  This is not fun or easy to drill through.  However, it also keeps the water level up which can increase the efficiency of heat pump systems.

In our next article, we’ll talk about AC Hacker’s improved electric drilling rig he made. If you don’t want to wait, check out his forum thread.

Post from: EcoRenovator.org

DIY Ground Source Heat Pump – Part 2: Making A Drilling Rig

Related posts:

1. DIY Ground Source Heat Pump – Part 3: An Improved Drilling Rig
2. DIY Ground Source Heat Pump – Part 4: Selecting in Ground Tubing
3. DIY Ground Source Heat Pump – Part 6: Testing Plastic Welds

Photo: iLoveButter

Greenterrafirma.com has a great article on a DIY solution for a blower door test as an alternative to the professional done test. Their solution is basically to turn on all the exhaust fans in the house and go around with an incense stick or a wet hand to see or feel drafts. They explain where to look for leaks as well so you aren’t randomly running around your house with an incense stick.

Its definitely not the quickest way to do things, but its a heck of a start that’ll get rid of the big leaks. Its also way cheaper than having a professional come out to do an energy audit for a couple hundred dollars. I know I’ll be trying this out in my leaky old farm house.

Update:  The test has been done.  Check out the Home Air Pressure Test Results here.

Post from: EcoRenovator.org

DIY Home Air Pressure Test

Related posts:

1. DIY Home Pressure Test Results
2. ER Project House: Basement Pressure Test Results
3. EcoRider: A Second Test Run