Aidan Pellegrino

Scope of Work

2-23-2012

For my spring 2012 required internship I have teamed up with AJ to design and build a Hydronic Solar Thermal System in the Vermont Green Offices building located at 12-22 North Street in Burlington. This will be done through a somewhat experimental method which can be recognized as “Reverse Radiant Flooring”. Located in the buildings second floor is a long 60 x 8 ft room lined with large windows that allow a significant amount of sun to enter. This sunlight heats the room to quite a high temperature. It is my goal to build a system that is able to capture this heat and use it for providing hot water to the entire building. This will be done through a technique similar to radiant flooring but essentially it will be the process reversed. What I will be designing and building is a series of PEX tubing under the floor in this room that will be filled with a mixture of water and anti-freeze. This mixture will store all the heat created from the sun in the room and will deliver it from the room and down to a water storage tank in the basement where it will then be distributed throughout the building for hot water needs.

I have several objectives that must be met first before doing so however. Initially I must calculate all the heat energy that is available to us on average as well as the max heat that will be available on extremely hot days. Once I know how much heat can be captured I will have to determine the volume of water that is needed to store this energy. By knowing the volume I can then properly select the type of tubing needed to store the water and how I will lay it out under the floor.