Propane tank for heat storage with solar hot water

[headrc]

Has anyone installed a solar hot water system using an old propane tank for water storage ....like a lot of other people have done with a wood boiler ....only with solar taking the place of a wood boiler? If so please give me any details that you can on this ....Thx, RH

 

[BrownianHeatingTech]

Has anyone installed a solar hot water system using an old propane tank for water storage ....like a lot of other people have done with a wood boiler ....only with solar taking the place of a wood boiler? If so please give me any details that you can on this ....Thx, RH

There's no reason you can't do it, although I would suggest using a heat exchanger if you will be using antifreeze in your solar loop, as filling a whole tank with antifreeze would be quite costly.

Joe

 

[headrc]

I would definitely be doing the heat excahnger ....sorry I left that out. Although researching this today .....it looks like enough solar to heat the water would cost as much as a boiler ....and would only supply 50% of the required heat storage ...whereas the boiler is supposed to supply all of it ....and as result get rid of your other fuel costs. Can anyone speak to this?? Thx, RH

 

[ericjeeper]

I have six solar panels that are 3 feet by 13 feet tall.. They will make a tremendous amount of heat on a cold sunny day.. Heat a 600 gallon buried storage tank.
I bought them used out of Southwest MO

 

[headrc]

Are you using the panels with any kind of radiant heat system? Or just using them for hot water? If I could find panels at a price that would let me get a payback in a couple of years I would definitely do it ....but so far that is not the case ...I only find new and my payback with solar as a heat source for radiant heat is like 17 years at todays propane prices ...that is not very inviting. Thx, RH

 

[Nofossil]

I have a hybrid system. I heat my DHW and storage tank with wood during the winter, and with solar during the summer. Doesn't take too much solar panels to do it. I have a writeup on my site - link in my signature below.