Yesterday, we hooked up the solar panels (for heat, the liquid kind) to the system, purged the air and got the 12VDC pump going. It hooks into a 250 gallon heat storage tank. The water in that will heat the in floor radiant heat system. But by the time we were done, the sun was setting and so, no heat. The sun is about to come around the corner and shine on the panels. It's for a 16'X20' greenhouse that we are going to grow stuff using aquaponics (look it up). We already have been playing with a 70 gallon tank of fish and two halfs of a 55 gallon drum to grow stuff in. Using a handful of goldfish, about 30 (about an inch long, babies). In thirty days, we have been picking lettuce for 3 weeks, cucmbers for 2 weeks and tomatoes for the last week. This is in an 8'X10' green house we made to start plants last spring. More tanks, more planting beds, we hope to produce enough vegetables and fruits for a family of 4+, within a month to 6 weeks. It will only get better after that. So far we have invested less than 200USD. We have found a lot of material for free, the solar panels had been laying around for over 20 years.
We have found specialized plastic sheeting that will be covering the south end and sides, with another different layer that will be held over the bottom layer with slight air pressure to minimize heat loss.
Gotta go,...the sun is moving over the panels. I'm excited, this has been a slow proccess finding the materials. Next week starts the electric solar panels to run the system (all 12VDC) including the control systems for the pumps that work the panels that heat the storage that heats the floor, so that the pumps that transfers water from the fish tanks to the grow beds, work too.
(one hand tied behind my back*)
Ativan
