do you generate renewable energy ...

[Rich L]

Right on Antonio. Photovoltaics is a poor investment if ones worried about their energy bill. On the other hand, if we have the means, investing in photovoltaics is a worthy contribution to resolving the energy crisis. My hat's off to those folks.

Luke is making his own contribution. It won't pay off for him for quite a while but he's working on something that may eventually have a major impact on our hobby.

If we look to our normal installations, attention to proper engineering techniques can save money and lower energy costs right now.

[Beniguy]

Very interesting information on electrical solar use. I'd like to get feed back on the concept of usins solar pannels running water through them for pond heating. I've seen several articles on DYI solar panels, not too hard to build. It leaves a small pump to circulate, and thermostat valve to redirect the flow away from a heat exchanger if the flow is colder than the pond.

At 8 to 10 potential hours per day of heat would it be worth the effort?

Ed

[kent wallace]

It's really about heat/energy storage. You can't run pond water through the solar collector. It will just ruin and clog it. The solar collector needs to heat water in an exchanger/storage unit and the pond water piping needs to flow through it exchanging the cold for heat. Night time is the problem. Without a back up heat source (propane, gas etc.) the temp will drop severely at night and the system will spend it's time the next day catching up. Ideally one would bury a huge insulated tank filled with the coolant for the solar units and have the tubing from the pond circulate through it. It would have to be large enough to hold enough heat to carry the system through the night. The pond would also have to be well insulated. This would be a good case for building ponds with insulated concrete forms to begin with.

[Rich L]

The pond itself is an energy storage basin if it’s handled right. It won’t work to use solar by itself unless it’s to keep the pond at somewhat of a higher temperature. The beast way to use solar is to compliment a heater. The solar unit can be used to raise the temperature a few degrees and the heater can be used to keep it from dropping more than a few degrees.

I don’t see heating as a worthy thing unless it’s used to shorten the spring warm up from a few months to a few weeks. The spring warm up is most valuable as it shortens the period when bacterial colonies are rampant but immunities are yet to become functional. In the fall, the pond can be heated to slow down the cooling and extend the season.

The fall cool down is dealing with koi whose immune response is functioning so its value is much less other than to shorten the winter period itself. The only time I see that as a benefit is in the first two years of growth, after that long growing seasons won’t help that much.

The concept of using a glass covered solar panel air space is an idea put forward by some 8 year olds in a contest. Who said today’s kids are wasting their time. It not only heats the air but it cools the panel and allows it to operate more efficiently

[Fishbreeder]

I got me a solar water heater at the fish farm. Works pretty darn good too.

Fairly simple, I use it to warm up a large fish tank that is protected from the wind and cold by a plastic wrapping around the fish house.

The heater consists of a small water pump, 100' of 1/2" black poly hose and the silver painted, tin roof of the fish house.

I pump fish tank water through the hose and the sun on the roof warms the water from 4 to as much as 15 degrees as it passes through and back to the fish tank. Alternatively I hook the heater hose to the new water source and heat the source water as it enters the tank.

When water temps outside were in the high forties, I kept the inside temp around sixty nost of the time. Warm enough to keep feeding the fish in the tank.

Brett

[saratogatan]

I think we never look at the cost of the energy in this hobby, until our bank account goes belly up. There is a very good chance that my solar system fails to pay for itself, but I feel good looking at what it can do to help the environment.

stan

[aquitori]

Still enjoying my 1/4 horse setup and enjoying the low bill with it...