Whoops! Too Hot!

This is upper west part of ARC08 South wall. See the wet looking spots on the glazing panels near the right?

I was wondering why those panels looked wet all the time.

Then I noticed that, inside the house, that portion of the wall seemed colder than the other wall at night and warmer during a sunny day. Curiosity got the best of us. Friday we drilled a 3 inch whole through the sheetrock and found that all the styrene foam in the sip was melted away and the resulting cavity was 225 degrees F.

We immediately took the glazing of of the area and then remembered that we had removed those three solar panels last fall, putting the glazing back so it looks good. The walls were covered with ice and water shield to protect them from leaks.

The black tarry ice and water shield soaked up the sun and got really hot, dripping molten tar onto the glazing.

For good measure, we removed the glazing from the rest of the solar panels and drilled a few holes to see if the sips behind them were also damaged.

This is what the house looked like before the glazing was removed.

This is what the house looks like with the glazing removed and a few test holes drilled.


We will not be pursuing this experimental plastic hot water solar panel design project anyway. It has been replaced by better projects. So we will be removing these panels and finishing those walls in a different way. Meanwhile, removing the glazing reduced the temperatures by about 100 degrees.

Our next move is to repair the damaged sips by re-enforcing them and filling them with closed cell foam for strength and insulation. Some of sips behind solar panels are slightly damaged; some of the foam no longer firmly stuck to the outer OSB. Those panels will have small holes drilled in the outer OSB and the proper glue injected to fill the little gaps.

Window project

Wayne is testing the mechanics of the moveable window insulation.

NARC heat pump plan 2.0

This has merit over the last version.  To be cleaned up and redrawn

Notes on Pedaling switch

We added details to our idea of making a pedal powered unit that switches the power for a TV, game console, or whatever.
Added concept of having a gauge showing charge, or minutes of time before they have to pedal again.
Added concept of locked cover over outlets to lock in the power plug.
Package could be small enough to be affordable since it's not actually generating power, but just closing a contact. Would need a capacitor or something to hold a charge for up to 10 or 15 minutes.
Would require adjustable resistance if not actually generating the power.
Could be integrated into a nice, semi-reclined chair unit with speakers for video game consoles.
One for the living room may send a wireless signal to the switch box so the pedal unit could move from couch to couch to chair.

Narc Heat Pump Control logic

MAIN LOOP

Inputs:
Aquastat - In 50 gal buffer tank. (24VAC)
House Thermostat - on wall somewhere in living space (24VAC)

Outputs:
HP -Heat pump turn on heat pump (24VAC into thermostat connection in heat pump)
-On if Aquatat <OR> Thermostat
Pump for Heat Pump - turn on any time heat pump is on. Often the heat pump will have a switched 120VAC line for that.
Floor valve - valve to floor loop - 24vac to actuate
-If Thermostat <AND> NOT Aquastat
Tank Valve - Valve to 50 gal buffer tank

HEAT EXCHANGER LOOP
-Differential temperature controller between water heater and buffer tank turns on the pump whenever buffer tank is more than a few degrees warmer than the water heater.

Lessons learned on air exchangers

Lessons learned on air exchangers:
1.The cold ductwork must be as short as possible. For every foot of duct, there is a large loss of heat from the dwelling. Using the insulated ducts that are currently available do not seem to help much.
2.Dampers need to be installed on the both sides of the exchanger, otherwise there is basically a hole to the outside of the building which will allow cold air into the building.
3.Any air exchanger must have actively balanced airflow in order for it to run at its optimum efficiency. If the flow isn't balanced, it again acts like a hole to the outside of the building.
4.It is important to install a quality external prefilter on both sides of the air exchanger and maintain them regularly.
5.To be continued....

NARC heat pump sketch

This will only mean something to those of us who drew it.