Background
The Arcata Educational Farm provides local produce for farm members. The Arcata Educational Farm also has a community garden that serves the Arcata community so that they can also have local produce and learn how to farm organically. Our client, Arcata Educational Farm, have asked to fix the solar hot water heater so it is functional. Also, we would like to install some weather protection for the solar hot water heater, an efficient vegetable wash system and possibly a conversion to a rudimentary shower.
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What is this?
This is a discussion page for our AEF Solar Water Heater project. It contains information we might find useful and it can, over time, evolve into the full Appropedia article we're required to make for class.
How to use this talk page
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Todo
- Meet with Lonny as a group to discuss project's future with 4 people. His office hours are on his user page (briefly, they are Mon 3-4 / Wed 5-6 / Fri 10-12). All three days (MWF) work for Roger. Wednesday is best for Kristy. What works for you, Melissa?
- Research technologies and products in use both at the farm and in general.
- Make a trip to the junkyard to see if there's anything worth scavenging.
Helpful stuff
What's currently at the farm
- Water Heater / Storage Tank
- We know it's a Reliance 606 series, but I neglected to find the exact model number. Will look again next time I'm there.
- Product manual (for connection instructions, etc.)
- Related patents:
- Solar Collector
- It's a "Colt, Inc. Model C-141C" solar collector. I could not find much information online but my UNVERIFIED guess is that it's actually a closed-loop system meant to be filled with glycol and not water -- but, again, that's UNVERIFIED (I only found one mention of this after a failed Google search, and I've since lost that cite).
Other examples
- Solar water heater - Basic principles and operations
- Parras, Mexico's solar water heater projects - Contains data logs and graphs from their testing phase
- Hotel Perote's solar pool heating project - One of the specific sites in Parras. Contains additional examples of mathematical/physical calculations that Lonny probably wants to see from a group our size