Update: System is installed!

That was easy. No, not that easy. I have been a bit lazy with blog entries or at least not as diligent as I had thought I'd be at the outset. At any rate, some stories about how it went: It took me about a month of occasional afternoon work, some weekend days and probably 10 trips to home depot. I have estimated (and I wish I'd have actually documented) that it took me around 30 hours to complete. I have also estimated that if I laid things out, read all the instructions first (instead of as I was going) I might have done it in 15-20 hours.

The most physically demanding steps where I actually called on my neighbor for help was hoisting the racking onto the roof and then bolting it down. I needed him for all of 10 minutes while I got the first bolts into the rafters. The other time was when I was fishing the Pex-Al-Pex tubing through the chase from the roof to the utility room. Pex is plumbing pipe that is somewhat flexible and can be pulled like electrical wires through chases and makes for much easier installation of plumbing systems. In this application, Pex-al-pex, which was prescribed for this install has a layer of aluminum in it which makes it a bit rigid (imagine bending a hoolahoop). The difference is this stuff doesn't kink as easily as a hoolahoop might. At any rate, I had two (a supply and a return) both wrapped in insulation and taped together along with a little wire for a temperature sensor at the collector taped to my fish tape. It was recommended that I start fishing the pipe through from the point where most of my problems would likely occur. For me this was the attic over my garage. My collector is located on a roof over my breakfast nook (see pics), but the roof to the right of it is the garage. So when I run the pipe from the collector I send it down into the roof of my garage and then into the wall between the garage and the house. This wall is where my chase is located. So I started (with the help of gravity, better to have it on your side) in the attic forcing my pipes down the chase to my basement closet. From there they had to turn (inside my drop ceiling) in a mechanical chase that is home to the main trunk of my hvac system and leads back to the utility room where the plumbing station is housed. Once that leg of the run was done I went back to the attic an poked a hole in the roof and sent the other end of the pipe through the roof to the collector.

I left myself about 20 extra feet because I really didn't want to pull it out and fish another one because I cut it short. So I proceeded to cut the pipes and damn near cut them short anyway... I literally had to yank on them to make them "long enough" to put the connector on.

My neighbor helped for about twenty minutes with the pex run, but I only needed him long enough to guide the pex through the route in the basement ceiling into the utility room while I pushed from the garage attic. After that I was good to go working by myself.

The only other help I got was from Bruce, who showed me how to clean and prepare copper pipe and fittings, add flux, then heat then solder and then don't touch. He did the first connection and then I did the rest. He made sure I didn't melt my siding, burn myself and all the other stuff I would have done giving it a go on my own. He also loaned me his torch, etc. Good guy that Bruce.

I think one thing I learned is that most of this stuff isn't that hard once you've overcome the initial hurdle of committing to do this project yourself. Once you're in you have to get it done so you push on and ask questions when you have to. Bruce sold me the system and was in the process of developing a diy handbook for the project, so he was glad to field my questions, but ultimately the goal was to make the manual so good that even an idiot could install this on their home given the right tools, the collector, the will, and the cash to go after this project. All that to say, that what I learned was no part of this was rocket science. My first CPVC connection was simple and so was my last. The hard part was being confident that I did it right and remembering to do it the same each time... I become easily distracted and my mind wanders when I repeat the same task over and over. Another example was when I was installing the 20 evacuated tube collectors into the rack. I had to take them out of the box, apply thermal grease to the tip and then insert them into the manifold and then lock them down with the little cup that holds it at the bottom. I was sure I was going to forget the thermal grease at least once. (Mostly because I was doing it myself. Imagine grabbing one collector, applying grease, climbing ladder, installing, getting down and repeating versus. hey Larry hand me the next one....)

More ramblings to come... I'll post some pics now and then finish my ramblings later....


You can do it, your neighbor can help! After all he is helping pay for it with his tax money!!! I'll explain later....