To address contemporary needs of the contemporary Anon, I wrote a sequel to the critically acclaimed "solarshit" guide. I present to you: heatshit. https://rentry.co/heatshitIt mostly focuses on how not to fuck up heat pump installs, but all the principles apply to condensation boilers, too. Also explains some basics about central heating components, so it might be useful just to learn what various parts are doing, or not doing in your system, even if you have no interest in heat pumps.
>>2883076Also here's the solar stuff for the auzzies.Disclaimer: as a non-professional, I only have so much experience, so feedback is welcome if you think I got some part wrong.
Thanks, lithium ion battery shill.You should go read about technology that works in winter.
>>2883082Hey, at least I found a method of energy storage that's worse than lead acid batteries.
Making a thing. Existing combi boiler, two connected buildings on the system, about 300sqm floor space. Planning to insulate both houses in the next 1-2 years, heat pump will be sized to the heat loss post-insulation (about 7-8kW estimate), and until then, it will either just run one of the buildings, or if possible, I'll set up the combi boiler in reduced performance mode such that it just boosts the output of the heat pump (currently heat loss is about 14kW total).Square memearrow |>| things are one way valves, round memearrow is pump, the circle-X are globe valves, except for the one on the UFH which is a flow control valve.The UFH is probably a novel and therefore possibly stupid solution. I wanted to keep it an open design, such that you can run it just on the heat pump's internal pump, but also turn on a booster pump if the flow rates aren't good enough. So that gave rise to>a bypass around the pump with one way valve - when the pump is off, just the input pressure pushes water around>a return line with a globe valve, so that the pump can be made to pull on the input just enough>flow control valve to make sure the pump doesn't pull more than it should (this is just redundancy, I already have a leftover flow control valve with no other uses)I don't know about piping the return flow from H1 and H2 together and then passing them to the CB and the HP, if/when H1 is isolated on the flow side, it probably shouldn't be mixing on the return, either. Might add a bypass return for H1 directly into the CB. But if I can run the CB in boost mode for the heat pump, then this is all unnecessary.
>>2884206Start of assembly with many missing parts. I originally designed for a 3-way mixing valve on the UFH, but decided against it, should never need flow temp over 50 in any part of the system. Might add a safety solenoid with a thermostat relay on the UFH input to prevent high temp water from getting into the UFH, since theoretically, if someone fiddled with the CB, it could deliver 70C+ water.
>>2883076thanks brother
I always wondered about doing something like picture related for as cheap as possible. Salvage some refrigerator compressor and try and make it for as cheap as possible without sacrificing too much efficiency. Woefully undersized for home heating. But maybe just to help space heat a single room.
And maybe an extra fan to dissipate the extra heat on the poor compressor.
>>2885253Why add the compressor? Why not just pipe the solar collector in?Also any kind of purchased solar collector will not be worth the money when compared to a conventional heat pump on PV, see https://rentry.co/heatshit
>>2885257I should add that the one thing that might work out well is /diy/ing a solar collector, just painting some big old radiator black or running a bunch of pipes in a wooden box with a glass cover, something like that. But even then, it's gonna heat a lot in the summer and not heat much in the winter, you're better off hooking it into domestic hot water.The collectors are commercially about $700 per 2sqm from what I've seen, those come with insulated pipes inside so they theoretically produce something even in the winter.
>>2885258That's exactly what I was thinking about doing. Black radiator or pipes. I wasn't sure if I should go for a solar collector or go with a large as possible ambient air exchange. Sure it only works down to -4 or so with some anti-freeze. Might be good enough. With the solar collector directly connected, I will only be able to transfer heat in to the building when the temperature in the collector is greater than indoors. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k-281odvtsUThe cheapest solar concentrator in the world (Parabolic trough, etc.) The problem is that this only works when the sun is out. Perhaps a hybrid system. A large ambient air radiator/ and a large solar collector that only requires a few movements per year aimed at the ambient air radiator. Get the best of both worlds.
I've watched a video on youtube where a guy ran a heat pump directly off of solar panels. https://youtu.be/l2JOUCo7iaMIt astonishes me why this isn't the norm. This system pays for itself in no time. Of course, I live with my parents, so I don't pay bills, but I've heard that it isn't uncommon for people to pay $400 a month in electricity just heating and cooling their house. I couldn't possibly imagine throwing money away like that. I'd definitely invest in heat pumps and solar panels then never have to think about that shit ever again.
>>2885309As long as you can /diy/ all of it. Solar panels (PV) are stacked against you, since they now cost as low as $80 per 0.5kWp, which generates about 400-600kWh of power per year, if you just hook that into an immersion heater element, you will produce vastly more heat than a big piped radiator. >>2885325This is a bit of a meme, and until now, solar systems have been extremely expensive and had very poor ROI. In the last 5 years, the prices have gone down about 70-80% on solar panels and batteries, about 40-50% on inverters, plus now there are very fancy all-in-one inverters on the market, some even for chump change. I say that that thing is a bit of a meme because how many are you gonna put on your house? It costs $2k, about $400 for solar, and the solar will probably be vastly underutilized in most months, and useless in the winter. The only upside is that you don't have to mess with the complexity of either a big hybrid solar, or a heat pump, and can /diy/ the whole install if you are so inclined. But when you consider that a regular AC unit costs <$1000, I don't know how fast you'd get ROI on this. Probably not very fast.
LFP finally hitting $50/kWh, or $0.05/Wh. Might get even lower as sodium-ion ramps up production.
>>2885730Should probably post the link https://eu.nkon.nl/rechargeable/lifepo4/envision-ess-4lh3l7-280ah-lifepo4-3-2v-b-grade.html
>UK government is shilling Air to Water heat pumps hard>offer incentives for Air to Air, despite it being cheaper and offering cooling and 'free' dehumidifying in a humid country as well.
>>2886084The UK schemes are retarded, notably also requiring you to toss your (possibly perfectly good) gas boiler just for the sake of the grant. But that aside, the comfort of water heating (and cooling) is considerably better, so if you already have radiators or even UFH, it'd be nonsense to switch to air to air. Also you can have the same dehumidifying indoor unit connected to an air-to-water, it's just that it's barely cheaper than installing a dedicated air to air in the given room and gonna be exactly as noisy as the regular aircon.
>>28857313.2 volts
>>2886093That's the normal LFP voltage of all LFP cells. 2.8-3.5V is the usable range.
>>2886095No duh, but that's not a battery pack voltage people buy. I expect 12 to 48 volts.
>>2886331Yeah, you put 4, 8, or 16 of them in series. Ready-made LFP packs are considerably more expensive, hence /diy/.
>>2885731What the fuck? Are those that cheap these days? Just around 200 € for a approx 12 V setup, nice!
>>2887090Prices have dropped massively in the last 2-3 years. You do have to give it a BMS, that's another $50-ish for a 12V pack, plus wiring and fuses, but still. Or you can get A-grade cells for $60/kWh.The ultra budget chang drop-in batteries are also pretty cheap, you can get a 3.5kW 12V one for about $500, but they are much more mystery meat than buying these cells, and it's still over twice the cost when building a big 48V battery.
>>2885309There are YouTube vids of that reflective material sealed onto a frame and vacuumed.Those mirrors are far superior.
