Didn't mean to imply "perfect" when using the word optimal. But when observing the fashion in which many of the houses were built in this area, mediocre would be a vast improvement. The now collapsed building boom in the Atlanta area resulted in various carpetbagger profiteers throwing up some horrible construction with little to no supervision of their untrained "imported" laborers. We have no unions (short of a few electricians) and the inspectors are bought off in the planning stages of the latest "Gated McMansion Communities." It's not all bad, just much of it. I expect many of the quadraplex condos built will fall apart within 15 years, assuming the ground doesn't give way underneath due to the horrific slopes they built upon yet poorly re-enforced.
I grabbed it and will probably throw together a tiny program that allows entering the variables and what ifing without recompiling the program. You are welcome to it, and will credit your efforts.
You should grab a copy of MathCAD, Mathmatica or Maple. You'd love the graphs and charts...
I also perused your web entire site hoping to see some of the internal details of your panels. Alas, I understand about the lack of positive feedback, Thank You's, and generally unappreciative nature of the Internet. Since 1998 I have received exactly 6 responses on my personal site, and several of those were bitching that a device driver wouldn't work with their non-approved hardware. Cripes - we've become a greedy, expectant lot.
I'm curious, what are you using for the heat exchanger? Is the glazing polycarbonate or glass? Do you bother to insulate the framing of the units?
Hey, I'd be so excited about removing another hole from my wallet I might need a rag to clean up. ;-)
I have no data with which to form an opinion, and haven't actually built anything due to my location but that is good to know. I may throw something together after looking over your site.
Unfortunately, I live in a topographical depression surrounded by trees and get little sunlight at the south end of the house, even in winter, due to the quantity of pine trees. Roses won't even grow along the south wall. The west side receives far more, but that not an optimal place for a collector in the south unless it is shuttered.
I like the restaurants and creative community, but the crime, traffic problems, and strangely lacking economies of scale make large cities undesirable for me. Atlanta was a far better place when it had less than a million people and considerably fewer carpetbagger politicians.
Actually, I didn't. I was born in downtown Atlanta and lived in GA until 30. I left after being endlessly harassed by a bunch of crooked right-wing politicians, an idiot Nixon era assistant US District attorney and his sycophant friends. Even your past employer, IBM, figures into that long, demented story as well. I still get flack over it 22 years later. If I call an attorney in the state of Georgia they either hang up or transfer me to voice mail when I mention my name. The last democratic governor of the state, who is also a lawyer of sorts, won't talk to me and I worked on his TV as a kid. I am left to conclude that they are an arrogant, collusive, self-serving lot of cretins.
Apparently some of my biggest enemies are as well. ;-) Which is curious, because I used to hang out with some pretty wealthy people in N. Atlanta before I crossed paths with this particular bunch. Oh, well.
Greg G.