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How to Keep Foundations Dry
Whatever type of foundation you lay for your home, and regardless of whether you're building a passive solar design or a traditional house, it is very important (especially for passive homes) to keep the foundations and their insulation as dry as possible. Moisture around the foundations is bad.
Basic Physics for Newbie Solar Designers
Physics is the science that defines how the physical world is structured and how each part of it interacts with all the others. Unfortunately, it's an incredibly complicated science because of this. The world is a very complex machine, after all!
As far as solar designers are concerned, there are some very basic laws of physics that must be understood. If you are a newbie in the solar energy field, here's a brief primer for you.
Roof Boots, Posts and Rails
Roof boots
Mounting Heat Exchangers
In many cases, mounting the heat exchanger is one of the easiest parts of system installation, especially if you buy a pre-packaged kit; you just put the module on the storage tank and tighten a few unions. However, you may decide to construct your own heat exchanger from individual parts. In any case, the first step is to install the storage tank, then attach the exchanger.
Preparing for Plumbing
Good plumbing is a return on investment in itself. Proper plumbing, carefully planned and implemented with professional soldering and workmanship can last 100 years, so it's worth doing it right. If you're a newbie, you will want to either practice beforehand or employ a skilled professional.
Solar Thermal Plumbing Toolkit
Before you start any serious plumbing work, make sure you have the right tools. Your system schematic (you did create one, didn't you?) will tell you how much piping you need, as well as all the fittings and other consumables required.
You will also need:
How to Measure, Cut and Clean Copper Pipe Runs
There is a definite art to plumbing with copper pipes. Thankfully it's fairly quick to learn, though your first few cuts and joins are likely to produce amateur results. If you've never installed copper pipes before, buy some extra parts and practice!
How to Solder Copper Pipes
If you're new to plumbing, you will want to practice soldering pipes before you try your skills on an actual solar thermal installation. It's not difficult but it's extremely important to do the job well or you'll get leaks and other problems. Practice makes perfect!
How to Prepare Pex Tubes for Radiant Heating
Back when modern radiant floor systems were first installed, copper or steel pipes were used. They were embedded in concrete under the floor and hot water ran through them to heat the building. It doesn't take a genius to see where the problems came from: