SWH prototype project part 2

Yesterday I finally got the panel connected up and heating some water, but before I recount that story in the next post, I thought I'd better fill you in on the rest of the panel-building. Here's the panel innards more-or-less complete, after much sledghammering and much nut-and-bolting:



















And now painted black and dropped into the outer frame:



















Our spray-paint claims to be flat black, but it does have a distinctly satin finish to it. Better than straight gloss, but I think we'll shop around for a bit longer next time.

Two layers of glazing in place, and in the process of being secured down:



















We sliced up some old tyre innertubes for use as gasket material. 6" x 4" sheets of glass are not easy to work with, and contribute to this thing weighing far too much. We managed to get both sheets in with only one small corner damaged, however.

Next, we 'reclaimed' this unused water tank from the roof of the operating theatre:



















This one is actually far too huge for our prototype panel, and will be more suited for when we have the much bigger array of panels for the laundry. Perhaps we'll be able to run it at quarter volume or so for now.

Because it'll (hopefully) be holding warm water, we have to get some insulation around it:





















This is a start using what we had lying around, but I think we'll have to make a few improvements to it before we use it for real. All this wood has been used at least once before - removing all the old nails and so on adds at least the same amount of time and effort again as the actual construction does.

On to the testing...