Interest Already

I was surprised to find an e-mail about the Cricket the morning after I activated this web site, and from Bulgaria. The next day, another from a man in Bend. In addition to these two, several people in Eugene have asked me about building their own.

At first I thought this might be a pretty arduous task, but then I remembered that we built all of the prototypes in Eldon’s and my backyards. I think it shouldn’t be too hard to write a set of plans for do-it-yourselfers. I have seen a lot of plans and instructions online for building fin-tubes or attaching copper plates to copper tubing. There are also some good instructions on building insulated boxes.

I suppose just giving a set of parameters for sizing and our reasons for choosing what we did would be a good start.

. . . after writing this I thought about sourcing some components to start building prototypes for do-it-yourself geyser pump plans. I sent a request to Sun Ray Solar, manufacturer of solar collector fin tubes. It seems to me that the trickiest part of building solar panels is bonding the tubes to the plates. Sun Ray Solar’s tubes use a unique way of physically clamping the fin to the tube, by doing so they can use aluminum fins and copper tubes. If they send me some samples I intend to build a 2-tube collector to test the pump function using the 1/2″O.D. tubes.

4 thoughts on “Interest Already

  1. A list of needed materials will be great.
    I do not have suppler for hard copper tubes in my town, i can find only soft tubes on rolls 0.7 to 0.9mm thickness on the side of the 1/2″ tubes.Will this be enough?
    What other tube sizes will be needed? And what length of each ?
    On the most drawings there is a Vapor condenser,witch look rather big, I am not sure that I will be able to find this diameter of tube…

  2. Here’s a tubing and pipe size list from memory:
    Vapor Condenser: 3″ Type M
    Header: 1″
    Footer: 3/4″
    Risers: 3/8 O.D. thin wall tubing
    Riser inserts: 5/16″ (top 3′ of risers, then up into header)
    connecting lines from vapor condensor to header, and faller to footer, collector to heat exchanger: 3/4″
    heat exchanger 2 20′ lengths of 3/4″ rigid tube, silver-brazed together for their full length.

  3. Great work Bob, you cover the main points so well, and this is just a start. Everything was well written and quite informative. I learned lots as I read it, and I thought I knew this stuff already. Well, keep it up.
    Dan

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