Installation Complete

2/19/15

9:25 - Air temp is 39 with 25 mph wind gusts.  The techs arrived and assessed the situation.  I think we’re all on the same page regarding what has to be done to finish the job.

11:24 - The panel is on the roof.  Temp is still in the low 40s.  They are now threading the soft copper pipe through the attic to the roof.  Lots of shouting back and forth.  No swearing though.

1:00 PM - The copper pipes have been run through the attic and through the garage attic.  They still have to solder them together and insulate the pipes on the outside of the house.  Temp sensor wire also run.  The panel should be nice and warm by now.

They are now adding the freeze valve and connecting the pipes and the sensor on the roof and connecting the pipes from the soffit to the garage.

3:15 PM - They are done.  Still need to install flashing on outside of house.  System is running.  The tech said it would take at least another sunny day for the system to get up to speed.  He turned the hot water backup a bit higher.  The sales rep will be coming with the inspector sometime and will finalize the FPL stuff.  The Pump is set to go on when the collector temp is 8 degrees warmer than the tank temp and shut off when collector temp is 140.  The LED that indicated that the pump was working turned off at around 3:45.  The collector is mostly in shade at that point.

8:44 PM - I noticed that the temp outside was down to 38, so I checked the controller.  All 3 LEDs were on, which means that the freeze protection circuitry is working.  When it gets close to freezing, the system sends warm water to the collector to keep it from freezing. As I watched it, it shut off.  So far, so good.

2/20/15

7:00 AM - 29 outside.  Three LEDs are on.  I checked the roof.  The other valve drained the water out and there is ice on the gutter.  The antifreeze protection is working.  I’m going to monitor the LEDs today to see how much heating we get from the sun.  High today is only supposed to be 50.

8:45 AM - OMG.  2 LEDs are on and it’s 36 outside.  My wife took a shower this AM and used a few gallons.  The panel is mostly in the shade but it’s warm enough to have the water be heated.  Using an instant read digital thermometer, it looks like the water leaving the tank is around 62 - 63 degrees.  I’m going to keep a log to see what it does today.

I talked to the sales rep.  The city inspector is coming today.  If flashing isn’t needed, we should be OK.  The flashing should be ready next week.  The rep is coming on Monday to finalize FPL rebate stuff.

11:15 AM

The city inspector came.  Looked at the tank.  Checked for leaks and signed off.

12:45 PM

Air temp: 49.  Water temp out of tank = 98.  Temp back to tank = 109.  Encouraging.

3:00 PM - one LED lit.  The last reading was temp out = 105, temp in =112.  It will be interesting to see what happens tomorrow.