Comments for bigoceanbuilders.com Blog http://bigoceanbuilders.com/blog Residential construction discussed. Fri, 23 Oct 2009 11:55:03 -0700 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 hourly 1 Comment on Winter plumbing by bigocean12 http://bigoceanbuilders.com/blog/?p=89&cpage=1#comment-40 bigocean12 Fri, 23 Oct 2009 11:55:03 +0000 http://bigoceanbuilders.com/blog/?p=89#comment-40 The short answer is yes! Basement areas can have drafts at concrete and sill locations and these wraps and pipe insulation can save a freeze up situation. You can feel these drafts in some of these locations and using a spray foam insulation can stop these problems. It'a a quick and inexpensive problem solver. Some arguments are that the basement area needs this heat put off by the pipes. Your basement should not be so cold that it needs that heat to keep the basement area from freezing. My view is insulate you hot water heater and and hot water pipes. The short answer is yes! Basement areas can have drafts at concrete and sill locations and these wraps and pipe insulation can save a freeze up situation. You can feel these drafts in some of these locations and using a spray foam insulation can stop these problems. It’a a quick and inexpensive problem solver. Some arguments are that the basement area needs this heat put off by the pipes. Your basement should not be so cold that it needs that heat to keep the basement area from freezing. My view is insulate you hot water heater and and hot water pipes.

]]> Comment on Evacuated Hot Water Tubes by bigocean12 http://bigoceanbuilders.com/blog/?p=84&cpage=1#comment-38 bigocean12 Tue, 22 Sep 2009 13:51:09 +0000 http://bigoceanbuilders.com/blog/?p=84#comment-38 Jack Bingham owns Sea Solar in Dover, NH and has a lot of answers and a few questions as well. Jack Bingham owns Sea Solar in Dover, NH and has a lot of answers and a few questions as well.

]]> Comment on Solar by jack bingham http://bigoceanbuilders.com/blog/?p=54&cpage=1#comment-37 jack bingham Tue, 22 Sep 2009 13:13:50 +0000 http://bigoceanbuilders.com/blog/?p=54#comment-37 Yes. You need a charge controller to manage the output of the panels to the batteries. Otherwise they could easily over charge. The controller manages the type of charge applied to the batteries based on their condition and shuts down charging when the batteries are full. Yes. You need a charge controller to manage the output of the panels to the batteries. Otherwise they could easily over charge. The controller manages the type of charge applied to the batteries based on their condition and shuts down charging when the batteries are full.

]]> Comment on Evacuated Hot Water Tubes by jack bingham http://bigoceanbuilders.com/blog/?p=84&cpage=1#comment-36 jack bingham Tue, 22 Sep 2009 13:11:56 +0000 http://bigoceanbuilders.com/blog/?p=84#comment-36 Well, it depends. Given an ideal location with an ideal pitch and solar orientation, in the seacoast I would tell customers it's a toss up. Tubes will produce higher temps in the winter and flat plates will produce more in the summer. so on an anual basis it can easily be a toss up. Now throw in a shallow pitched roof or a ridge that runs north south and the light weight and limited wind load of tubes becomes a factor. Mounting heavy flat plates in unusual ways can get pretty complicated particularly in a windy environment. If on the other hand you are doing some radiant floor heating and want to do some of it with solar, tubes are the only option. below 20 degrees F flat plates really fall down and the vacuum in tubes really provides dramatically better insulation. As for fragility the suggestion that tubes are fragile is a myth. Cylinders in general are very strong and these glass tubes are no exception. I can tell you that we have actually managed to break three flat plates but have never broken a tube. If you happen to break a tube they can be replaced in minutes. Break an installed flat plate and you are in for a days work! Whether they are worth the extra cost depends entirely on the circumstances. Well, it depends. Given an ideal location with an ideal pitch and solar orientation, in the seacoast I would tell customers it’s a toss up. Tubes will produce higher temps in the winter and flat plates will produce more in the summer. so on an anual basis it can easily be a toss up. Now throw in a shallow pitched roof or a ridge that runs north south and the light weight and limited wind load of tubes becomes a factor. Mounting heavy flat plates in unusual ways can get pretty complicated particularly in a windy environment.
If on the other hand you are doing some radiant floor heating and want to do some of it with solar, tubes are the only option. below 20 degrees F flat plates really fall down and the vacuum in tubes really provides dramatically better insulation.
As for fragility the suggestion that tubes are fragile is a myth. Cylinders in general are very strong and these glass tubes are no exception. I can tell you that we have actually managed to break three flat plates but have never broken a tube. If you happen to break a tube they can be replaced in minutes. Break an installed flat plate and you are in for a days work!
Whether they are worth the extra cost depends entirely on the circumstances.

]]> Comment on Solar by clifc http://bigoceanbuilders.com/blog/?p=54&cpage=1#comment-35 clifc Thu, 03 Sep 2009 21:28:07 +0000 http://bigoceanbuilders.com/blog/?p=54#comment-35 Power is for a pair of electric engines that are run usually not more than an hour or so. every couple days. I use two 12 volt batteries for each engine. (total 4 batteries) No storage is needed. Is some sort of metering or automatic switch necessary between the batteries and panels. Thanks Power is for a pair of electric engines that are run usually not more than an hour or so. every couple days. I use two 12 volt batteries for each engine. (total 4 batteries) No storage is needed.

Is some sort of metering or automatic switch necessary between the batteries and panels.

Thanks

]]> Comment on Solar panel ratings by clifc http://bigoceanbuilders.com/blog/?p=81&cpage=1#comment-34 clifc Thu, 03 Sep 2009 21:23:37 +0000 http://bigoceanbuilders.com/blog/?p=81#comment-34 Thanks jack & bigocean Info is most helpful! Thanks jack & bigocean Info is most helpful!

]]> Comment on Solar panel ratings by bigocean12 http://bigoceanbuilders.com/blog/?p=81&cpage=1#comment-33 bigocean12 Wed, 02 Sep 2009 17:32:16 +0000 http://bigoceanbuilders.com/blog/?p=81#comment-33 Jack helps us out again! Jack Bingham owns Sea Solar in Dover NH. Jack knows the positive from the negative in the solar world. Jack, thanks for the reply to this question. Jack helps us out again! Jack Bingham owns Sea Solar in Dover NH. Jack knows the positive from the negative in the solar world. Jack, thanks for the reply to this question.

]]> Comment on Solar hot water by bigocean12 http://bigoceanbuilders.com/blog/?p=79&cpage=1#comment-32 bigocean12 Wed, 02 Sep 2009 14:18:29 +0000 http://bigoceanbuilders.com/blog/?p=79#comment-32 Yes, to the tie in of existing water system, of course there is always a but.... depends.......and yes to the storage situation..... depending on the size of your tank. 80-120 gallons of water storage in well insulated tanks would be nice. The more use of hot water the larger the needed storage capacity. Because of the solar heat exchange method it is not instant hot water, there for you need some storage capacity. Yes, to the tie in of existing water system, of course there is always a but…. depends…….and yes to the storage situation….. depending on the size of your tank. 80-120 gallons of water storage in well insulated tanks would be nice. The more use of hot water the larger the needed storage capacity. Because of the solar heat exchange method it is not instant hot water, there for you need some storage capacity.

]]> Comment on Solar hot water by jack bingham http://bigoceanbuilders.com/blog/?p=79&cpage=1#comment-31 jack bingham Wed, 02 Sep 2009 14:15:08 +0000 http://bigoceanbuilders.com/blog/?p=79#comment-31 Lets start at the back first. The two critical characteristics of a solar hot water tank are size and insulation. You need, on average nearly twice as much storage for solar as a conventional system. Second, the average water heater or storage tank sold 5 years ago or more is no where near insulated enough. After going to the expense of making solar hot water you want to save as much of it as possible for use and not have a high stand by loss. You can and should connect the solar hot water system to your existing domestic hot water system. You could use your existing heat source for backup. Ther are a miriad ways to configure one of these systems, so more detail would be required to be more specific. Lets start at the back first. The two critical characteristics of a solar hot water tank are size and insulation. You need, on average nearly twice as much storage for solar as a conventional system. Second, the average water heater or storage tank sold 5 years ago or more is no where near insulated enough. After going to the expense of making solar hot water you want to save as much of it as possible for use and not have a high stand by loss.
You can and should connect the solar hot water system to your existing domestic hot water system. You could use your existing heat source for backup. Ther are a miriad ways to configure one of these systems, so more detail would be required to be more specific.

]]> Comment on Solar panel ratings by jack bingham http://bigoceanbuilders.com/blog/?p=81&cpage=1#comment-30 jack bingham Wed, 02 Sep 2009 14:10:15 +0000 http://bigoceanbuilders.com/blog/?p=81#comment-30 Solar Panels are rated under STD "Standard test Conditions" to produce a certain number of watts which are actually watt hours. So this 190 watt panel should produce 190 watts in one hour. Of course there is no real world equivalent of STD. So it is more likely that you will produce about 77% of that in a given hour assuming you have full sun. Also there is a difference between full sun here and full sun at the equator! On average we get 4.2 hours of sun a day in Northern New England on an annual basis. This is based on average weather history and would not account for last June! One can go look at pvwatts 1 and estimate annual production based on location, tilt east west and up down. Solar Panels are rated under STD “Standard test Conditions” to produce a certain number of watts which are actually watt hours. So this 190 watt panel should produce 190 watts in one hour. Of course there is no real world equivalent of STD. So it is more likely that you will produce about 77% of that in a given hour assuming you have full sun. Also there is a difference between full sun here and full sun at the equator! On average we get 4.2 hours of sun a day in Northern New England on an annual basis. This is based on average weather history and would not account for last June! One can go look at pvwatts 1 and estimate annual production based on location, tilt east west and up down.

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