You have reached your limit of 5 free stories. A story preview is shown instead.
To view more stories
(If your subscription is current,
click here to Login or Register.)
35-Year-Old Solar Heater Still Going Strong
Joseph Rupinski put together fifteen 2 by 8-ft. solar collectors 35 years ago to provide hot water heat for his 3,500 sq. ft. house. He's still using them today.
"When I built the system, people said gas is cheap and that I'd never recoup my investment. But 35 years later I'm still getting free heat. It doesn't
..........
You must sign in, subscribe or renew to see the page.
You must sign in, subscribe or renew to see the flip-book
35-Year-Old Solar Heater Still Going Strong ENERGY Solar 33-6-14 Joseph Rupinski put together fifteen 2 by 8-ft. solar collectors 35 years ago to provide hot water heat for his 3,500 sq. ft. house. He's still using them today.
"When I built the system, people said gas is cheap and that I'd never recoup my investment. But 35 years later I'm still getting free heat. It doesn't furnish all my heat but it helps a lot," says Rupinski of Twining, Mich.
"At the time I built it there were no small pre-assembled solar collectors on the market. I put the collectors together myself, buying parts from a solar manufacturer. Building the collectors wasn't an easy job, and probably not one for the average person. It took a lot of time has saved money. I got a 55 percent tax rebate for the collectors, and my total cost was less than $2,000."
The system includes a dozen 55-gal. barrels stacked in an out-of-the-way place in his basement. They're used to store hot water. "The barrels are an ideal way to transfer heat from the fluid in the collectors to the air," says Rupinski. Some of the fluid runs through pipes under the basement floor and into a baseboard heating system.
Insulated pipes connect all the collectors together, with anti-freeze pumped through the pipes and into copper tubes inside the collectors. The heated antifreeze then goes to the basement and into a heat exchanger, which transfers the heat to the barrels. The anti-freeze then recirculates back to the collectors.
The pump and differential controllers are located in a mechanical room in the basement.
"Everything is done automatically. When there's more heat in the collectors than in the house, the collectors automatically come on. When the difference is marginal, the pump automatically shuts off," says Rupinski.
Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Joseph Rupinski, 2531 Williams Road, Twining, Mich. 48766 (ph 989 873-8213).
To read the rest of this story, download this issue below or click
here to register with your account number.
