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too much solar heat Thursday, April 13 2006
The solar panel pulled in so much heat today that the indirect hot water heater actually shut off because the 53 gallons of water inside had reached its 120 degree Fahrenheit limit. That limit is there so the boiler (when it is heating agent) won't raise the water's temperature to a scalding temperature. Such a limit makes less sense when the solar panel, with its limited power, is doing the heating. It seemed prudent to collect as much heat as the sun was making available, so I raised the heater's upper limit to 130 degrees. I've ordered a prefab 24 square foot solar hot water panel, one using an efficient vacuum tube technology. But I don't know what I'm going to do if I find myself routinely collecting too much heat to use. Chances are I'll think of something, even if I have to store it in an underground cistern.
This evening our friends Ray and Nancy took advantage of the long Easter weekend to come up from Brooklyn for a visit. The four of us went out to the Pupuseria for what we as individuals always respectively get there. On this visit Ray seemed less neurotic and more cavalier about his recently-diagnosed diabetes, indulging in two beers before dinner and then another with his carbohydrate-rich pupusas. (Normally his condition restricts him to a diet not too different from the one that goes by the name Atkins.)
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