How to build a Homemade Off grid Solar Powered Water fueled Air Heater and Air Cooler using an 8 X 8 heat exchanger and a car radiator fan

This project goes over the installation of a homemade radiant floor hydronic heating system for the garage. The radiant floor heating uses a pex tubing that is installed along the floor of your garage or room . Hot water is passed through the tubing which radiates the heat out into the room or space. The first step is to figure out what size pex coil tubing and how big of a water heater you would need . Also how many feet of tubing would allow enough heat to exchange into the concrete floor to sufficiently warm up the entire space. The total BTU/hour or heat required will be based on the square footage of your garage or room . We begin by levelling the ground and start laying down a vapor barrier .The vapor barrier is made out of 6 Mil Visqueen plastic PE film .The barrier keeps the moisture from under the ground to rise up to the surface of the floor. We then lay a mixture of sand and packing gravel before installing the two inch extruded insulating polystyrene foam on the floor and the perimeter. Four circuits of 800 ft half inch Pex tubing is stapled down on two inches of polystyrene insulating foam using a pex stapler. The eight tube ends are routed upto to a box from where it is connected to a manifold which is mounted on to the wall. The pex tubing with the supply and return tube is connected to the manifold with the help of a compression fitting . To check if all the connections are OK or if there is any hole or leak in the tubing, connect the manifold to a 100 PSOI air pressure gauge to do a pressure test. Five inches of concrete is then poured over the pex tubing circuits. Saw cuts of less than an inch are made into the concrete to allow for the shrinkage during the curing process. To insulate the pex tubing and to prevent water from entering into the floor, an expanding foam sealant is filled near the junction where the concrete meets the supply and return tubing near the manifold. The heating components of this system are mounted on a 4 X 4 square sheet of plywood. The heater has a rating of 7.2kW . The heater is flow activated which requires a circulating pump to pump water through it which then activates the heater based on the temperature setting. Two 120V fractional horsepower circulating pumps are used , one for running the water through the heater and the other circulates out through the pex loops. The pump has an inbuilt garden hose connector system used for draining. The hot water coming out of the output end of the heater passes through a pressure tank which removes the air bubble with an air release valve and prevents any water hammer to the system. This is further connected to the flow activated circulating pump for the heater with connections for filing and draining the system with the help of shut off valves. The water then comes down to a stainless steel manifold and then flows through the supply end of the pex tubing . The heated water splits into four supply loops at the manifold into the concrete floor. The water then returns back to the return end of the manifold through the other four loops of pex tubing and goes straight through another circulating pump and a Y strainer filter before circulating back to the heater. Two thermometers are connected at the supply and return end of the pipe to know the temperature difference of the outdoing water and the returning water. The flow is controlled by a thermostat and a switching relay that turns on the circulating pump . https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLmHss3DBZUimsi9qV6RFJTUw6xh-P4B3Q

This project goes into the build of an off grid rocket mass heater for heating water without propane or electricity. This system also doubles as a cooktop. This rocket stove is really efficient and can create tremendous amount of free heat from little pieces of wood. The materials you need to build this rocket mass heater are copper coil , PVC pipes to make mould, clay and sand mixture, a frame for support, storage tank or drum ,oil, wood as fuel. The stove sits on a frame made from a wooden piece. Here an old chair is used as a base for support. The cob mixture made from clay, sand and water is poured on top of the frame as it is raised up. The next step is make hole for the air intake at the base of the stove. Also another hole is made for fuel intake at an angle to the base. We use PVC pipes as mould to make these holes. We lubricate the pipes with oil before covering them with mud so that they can be easily removed once the mould has been set and dry. A half cut lubricated PVC pipe is placed at the base of the support frame in front of another PVC which forms the body of the stove where the copper coil is wrapped. We start covering the PVC pipes with clay and sand mixture around the junction where the pipes meet. Once the mud has been filled and raised up , another PVC pipe at an angle is placed for the fuel intake. The copper coil is inserted into a well greased up PVC pipe . This section acts as the burn chamber where the coil gets heated up with the water inside. The coil is extended at the ends for the intake and the outlet .The bottom side of the coil is the intake of the cold water and the top for the hot water outlet. Fully pack the area around the copper coil and sides of the PVC pipe with the clay mixture such that the copper coils are completely covered . Pack the clay till you reach five to six inches above at the end of the pipe . This is done so that the top can be used for cooking or boiling. Once the clay and sand mixture is completely dried and set, we slowly take the PVC pipes out. Dig out the back end of both the holes so that all of them are connected to form a elbow shaped hole. The intake and the outlet copper tube is then connected to a water storage barrel. The intake pipe is connected near the bottom of the barrel where the cold water settles and the upper end of the copper coil is connected at the top where the hot water is collected. So the cold water that flows into the rocket stove, gets heated through the copper coil, and then due to the thermosiphon effect and natural convection ,the heated water is pumped through the other end of the coil on to the top of the barrel and this way the water is recirculated without the help of any external source. The cold water natural sinks down due to its higher density .The hot water becomes less dense once its heated , therefore it expands and rises up the coil to the water storage tank. Make sure that there is a height difference between the rocket stove and the water storage tank . The rocket stove always should be installed below the storage tank so that cold water naturally descends down into the stove and there is no backwards flow . https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EUnQVIlAn6M

Water is one of the most important resources you can have and to get water to the highest point in your property, so that you can store it and water your gardens and your animals and your orchards is incredibly valuable. This project goes over the build a water pump that can pump water uphill with no other external source of power except for the water flowing into it. If you have got a piece of land with an abundant source of water like a pond or a creek, a ram pump lets you get that water to a tank or a location at a higher elevation without using no electricity or fuel. A ram pump is essentially two one way check valves, one called the waste valve and the other called the delivery valve. To get it started, you just momentarily open the waste valve to allow water to flow. After that it's working on its own to pump the water uphill above the elevation of the source. The ramp pump works by the principle of water hammer. As the waste valve opens, water flows into the pump and immediately out the valve. But as it picks up speed, the flowing water eventually forces the waste valve to slam shut. Now the water is stopped in the pump, it had kinetic energy, but now it doesn't. That means that kinetic energy was converted into pressure. Slamming a valve shut converts all the kinetic energy nearly instantly, creating a huge spike in pressure which opens the second check valve and forces water entering the pump into the delivery line. An pressure tank is included in the pump to smooth out those sharp spikes and pressure and provide a more even flow rate out of the delivery pipe, reducing wear and tear on the pump components. Here we use a PVC cylinder as the pressure tank. As the delivery pipe is opened, it will allow a constant flow of water as the pressure builds. If you open the valve too quick, this will hold a certain amount of pressure in it so that the pump doesn't stop due to pressure loss. To get the water to the pump somehow from your source, you need to have a tube or pipe. This pipe is a called a drive pipe. This need to have head pressure or drop in elevation. The drive pipe has same size as the waste valve. The more rigid the material, the more efficient your pump will be. You can use steel or PVC pipe or flex tube. To get the water to our desired destination, we are going to have to have something called a delivery pipe. Here we are using garden hose as the delivery pipe. Here are the steps to assemble a one and quarter inch hydraulic ram pump. The parts you need to build this pump are : Six one quarter close pipe nipples - This allows the components to be screwed close together and not have any extra gap between. Two three quarter pipe nipples 2 One and a quarter ball valves 3 quarter threaded union 2 One and a quarter PVC union 2 threaded PVC tees - threaded on all 3 sides A threaded spring check valve - This has a spring on the inside. That allows water to flow through one direction and not the other. A bushing that goes from one and a quarter down to three quarter. A brass or stainless steel swing check valve - This is threaded on both ends. And inside there is a little lever that closes on a swing motion. Teflon pipe tape to make sure things are tightened up and couple of wrenches. The first step in the pump assembly is to take the Teflon tape and put it around these one inch and three quarter pipe nipples. This is done in a clockwise position such that whenever it is time to actually screw components onto this, we want to make sure that they do not unscrew or remove the Teflon tape. This pipe tape will allow the components to screwed together in a more fluid manner. And it helps to create a better seal in the components. Next step is take your one and a quarter ball valve and a pipe nipple and thread that together. Take the one and a quarter union and connect it to the other end of the taped nipples. Connect a tee to this unit with the help of another pipe nipple. Next is attaching a spring check valve to this unit. You need to make sure that the flow is pointing away from the components we just put together. There's an arrow on these that distinguishes the flow direction. Connect another PVC tee to the valve through a nipple. A threaded bushing is going to go on the end of that second tee. On that three quarter bushing, we are going to put one of the three quarter pipe nipples. From that pipe nipple, we are going to put the other three quarter inch union. A three quarter ball valve is connected to this end through another pipe nipple. We connect the swing brass/stainless steel check valve to the first PVC tee with the help of another pipe nipple. When connecting the check valve, make sure that the door or flapper is going to fall open from gravity. So it is going to screw on to this pipe nipple with the door hanging open. The second PVC tee is connected to the pressure tank with another pipe nipple. Make sure that both tees are facing in the same direction. To build the pressure tank for the one and a quarter pump, you need a four inch PVC schedule 40 pipe , four inch coupling, four inch socket to one and a quarter threaded bushing , a four inch cap , bicycle inner tube. Take your angle grinder and cut a 17 inch long pipe from the four inch PVC schedule 40 pipe .Once the pipe section is cut, it's time to assemble the pressure tank. Coat the inside of the coupling with a PVC cement and stick our 17 inch pipe inside .Make sure it is real snug in there . The other side of the coupling is connected to the threaded bushing. Next step is to insert the bike inner tube into the pressure tank .Grab it from the underside and pull it enough that we can attach my pump to it. Start filling the tube with the bicycle pump. Pump until the whole tube seems tight. Put the cap back on the top and seal them tight using pvc cement. The last step is to attach your pressure tank onto this threaded nipple that is connected the second PVC tee on the pump. Next step is installing the ram pump near the water source .This one and quarter inch pump requires around eight gallons per minute to operate. The amount of water that you get at the top is increased as the pump size goes up. So to start the pump, first you need to close the ball valve for the delivery pipe and make sure the ball valve for the drive pipe is opened. You need to just push the waste valve down until all the air inside the drive pipe is out. Water comes down this drive pipe and slams against the check valve to shut it down . It creates a pressure wave that gets shot back up the drive pipe .If the pressure wave finds an air pocket ,then the pump will stop. Start priming the pump by opening the valve manually couple of times until the pump starts to work on its own. After the pump has been running for a minute or two, you're gonna open up your delivery pipe valve out because the pressure tank now has enough pressure in it to push water uphill. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K8Fy__ThqpQ