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Marvo said:
Thanks for the book, much appreciated. We don't even get frost in winter so I would have much use for snowmobile plans but thanks for the offer anyway.

I'd try to get as much close tight contact between the copper pipe and the aluminium as possible to aid heat conduction between the two. You have about 20% of the pipe circumference in contact, maybe try more for 30-40% if you can. It would be even better if you run some solder between the two but I don't think it's easy to solder aluminum to copper so maybe some heat paste. 
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No worries. Reading suggests smearing silicon sealant in the depression between copper pipe and ali back sheet to aid heat transfer and protect against electrolytic reaction - I guess OK if you're excluding moisture from the "interface" it should work.........they say to paint it all black AFTER they've been "siliconed" together. I wonder whether better to paint the ali sheet and pipework separately THEN silicon together, i.e. adding another layer (of paint) to guard against a reaction. Other reading suggests indeed smearing with heat transfer paste!

Got to find myself a cheap 15mm, 5/8" or 17mm round nose router cutter (maybe called a "core box bit") so I can cut round bottom grooves in a lump of hardwood to make a former..............plenty available from the States, Hong Kong etc for less than a fiver but here, still looking!

 
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I wouldn't worry too much about electrolysis or the moisture issue. If you had 2 aluminium sheets you could sandwich the copper pipe then use a row of bolts or pop rivets to pull the sandwich tight and get better contact.

 
Sharpend said:
Isn't that practically a radiator?
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You CAN use a bog standard radiator as a collector for solar panels, painted black of course, insulated underneath etc. Of course it's a radiator so is thermally highly efficient. BUT seemingly as there is in it a large volume of water it makes it "slow" to respond to the heat reaching it and this reduces it's performance in this application.

....just what I've read!

 
Small update..........currently amassing materials for the MK2 version, just a small part of the "stock" there are empty "collectors" everwhere:



Silly question..........what's a "standard" sort of size for a solar thermal panel?

Guinness

 
Jerry He said:
What is it used for?
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Erm....................nothing yet although I did have a garden shower with the heated water a few times and several hot (very hot) car washes! More as a bit of fun to show the kids you can make a working solar water heater out of junk what would normally be thrown away and pretty much at zero cost. 

Coming this Summer, the MK2!

:lol:

 
Hot water cylinders.................traditional, indirect types, For what reason on the cylinder stat instructions does it say you should fit the thing "a third" of the way up? If you then set it to 55-60degC surely the water at the very top of the cylinder will in fact be hotter?

Or am I being a numpty?

There is some thought behind this as in I'm considering the best place to fit sensors on a pre-heat tank and main hot water cylinder. Rough thoughts are sensor on the cold water storage tank side so I can see what temperature water I'm presenting to the pre-heat tank and then one on the input to the main hot water cylinder so I'll know roughly the degC solar gain I've achieved with my homebrew panel(s). Not looking for anything fancy at the mo though the "ideal" is something that logs the data from multiple sensors against time. Raspberry Pi someone will say / has said but I wouldn't know where to start! Cheers.

 

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