is there a way to harness the heat?

[sinnian]

I was up in my garage attic (but any attic will do) today and it was like a sauna. I mean I could barely breath.

Anyway, it got me thinking...............

Is there a way to harness the summer heat in an attic to supply DHW? ~ just a thought I would throw out.

Thanks ~ Jeff

 

[steam man]

I have seen a design that will do just that. I believe they use a tank of some kind that is placed in the attic space. This would be easy to do with pex that allows the water to go through the tubing for preheat. The only thing I would want is to be sure it can drain completely before freezing temps come back.

radiantec.com(?) uses a concept design by using the radiant floor tubing to do almost the same thing though they they claim it can somewhat "cool" your house at the same time, i.e. "poor man's AC".

 

[Nofossil]

I was up in my garage attic (but any attic will do) today and it was like a sauna. I mean I could barely breath.

Anyway, it got me thinking...............

Is there a way to harness the summer heat in an attic to supply DHW? ~ just a thought I would throw out.

Thanks ~ Jeff

Solar hot water panels on your roof would do exactly that, but they would be capturing the heat before it even got into your attic. There's an outfit called Dawn Solar (I think) that markets a metal roofing system with PEX collector tubing in metal purlins under roof surface. Nowhere near as effective as a dedicated collector, but invisible and maintenance free.