And;
The Pressure Test.
24 hours later, and 10 degrees colder, and what was 54PSI is now down to 50 PSI.
I guess if I were clever, or knew where to look up the forumla(ae) or a generous helping of one plus a modicum of the other, I could determine if that's really a leak, or just changes in 'stuff'. All in all, I don't think I'll worry about it much. It may even be the garden hose fittings I'm using as part of this testing jig that just aren't tight enough. I dunno.
But for the other part, you've already seen this:
And some have actually wondered and even guessed at what it is.
That would be the collector,
Now it's time for the housing:
This is bits and pieces of 2 2x6 boards, ripped in half on Bob's tablesaw and run through the planer, then some strips ripped off of those.
A bead of tightbond III, the waterproof stuff
Add one of those strips, pre-drilled of course to avoid splitting that skinny bit of wood.
And yes, just as seen on Late Night TV, the Kreg Pocket hole jig. And yes, it works just like shown in the info-mercials. In fact, it's pretty fun.
The Kreg in action! Now, I gotta confess, a few months back I was staying in a hotel, and was sitting on the bed stunned by the complete wasteland that is TV programming in these modern times; when I stumbled on an info-mercial, and was kinda fascinated. But I let that go. I'm not that silly. However, I'm fortunate enough to actually count some 'makers' amongst my acquaintances and friends. One of the more practically productive makes I've ever had the pleasure to know, Dave Hickey, well, just can't stop making stuff. He's been building interesting and practical and actually pretty well made stuff as long as I've known him and I've known him for quite a while. Well, he told me, (after I laughed at him) that the Kreg was some of the best money he ever spent. Fair enough.
That's what it do!
Okay, add the side pieces of the casing, screwing the collector plate down to the strips on the sides.
Prepare the end pieces. I'm relieving the notches for the top brace for the cover here.
Okay, end pieces in place. Getting closer.
Braces and cover in place. Just to see how things fit at this point. The idea with this thing is to make a solar collector out of regular ole 'stuff' from the hardware store. This collector has 32 square feet of usable collector area. a real 4'x8', nearly 3 (2.97) square meters. It should hypothetically be able to capture something like 6000 btu/hr for a few hours a day. But in reality might actually be able to capture 3000 btu/hr. Could likely do a whole whopping lot more than that during the months no one cares. :) Since I ripped all the lumber down to the minimum size that made any sense at all, I can actually pick the thing up by myself. A commercial collector of this size may cost as much as $2K or so. The material cost on this one is fairly $330, including the stainless steel staples, glue and all that. A bit more than $10/sq-ft.
And here's the sorta completed collector, minus the end-caps.
The two sheets of polycarbonate sheeting are siliconed together in the middle and screwed down to the top brace with tech screws. The edges are siliconed to the frame and screwed down with a strip of wood along the sides. After the silicone kicks for a day. I'll remove the side strips, cut the silicone bead out, unscrew the top from the bracing, and remove it. Then paint the frame and let it dry, and re-silicone everything and hopefully end up with a watertight seal on it.
I've left room behind the collector plate for a 3/8" air gap and 2" of radiant barrier polyiso foam board insulation, and a bit left over for a closing sheet of plywood. It's not really so much about keeping the hot air in, (which is important) as it is keeping water out.
Anyway, that's it so far.
No comments:
Post a Comment