steve pailet

if you did a portico it would give you a great place to install your PV panels.  Strong and out of the way so you normally would not have to look at it.. No real reason so stack and pound all those tires to enclose the cars

a couple of good ideas here use of shade sails to shade the roof is always a good idea. Because you are in a stone building one thing that comes to mind.. plant a lot of Vines so the vines will climb the walls an eventually onto the roof.. It creates a wonderful micro climate. make sure you do irrigation so the vines always have enough moisture to expire around the house.  I would also recommend if you can putting up a radiant barrier as mentioned a couple inches from the roof. Best if you have great ventilation at the soffit level The heat will find its way out.  Last couple of things.. put up netting and loose blow in about 2 ft of cellulose insulation(it cheap). Then put up some sort of sheet goods like sheet rock .. get it well sealed around the perimeter of the walls your walls already are pretty tight being 2 ft thick.  Between everything you will be able to let your ac do its job.  Do not know how big your house is.. but where you are likely have high humidity.  Running a dehumidifier may also have a major impact.

Love all of the ideas shared here.. One Idea I had not actually thought about but someone mentioned to me . Since I have enough room for the cabinets is on one wall pull the lower cabinets out about 6 inches and use a 6 inch high back slash.  Then put a shelf across the entire back splash area that is 6 inches in depth.. The idea is that a lot of things end up cluttering the countertop but with this shelf directly in back of the cabinets it gives a place to store all those little items that are used almost daily and keep your actual countertops clear of the clutter.  Keeps those things like flour and sugar bins out, or the coffee container and such

solid plywood cabinets are expensive for sure.. but that said they are and have always been the high quality cabinets on the market.  Laughing my Gf is very vertically challenged. We have two step stools in the kitchen.  I have looked at a mobile island only because it is a great place to put the tools for doing baking which is a joy for my gf.  Nothing like having a dedicated marble top for both rolling out and cooling baked stuff

Ash Jackson wrote:Hey Steve,
Thanks for sharing your ideas, I hope you continue to do so as your design progresses.

For your wire shelves, my opinion is you'll want it to say "stainless steel" somewhere in the literature.  SS is usually pricey.

For the work triangle: some others have alluded to it, but I thought I'd post directly in case you were unfamiliar with it: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kitchen_work_triangle

yes definitely stainless.  When I looked at the cost of installing cabinets Figure the minimum with counter top upper and lower along with mostly drawer units the prices soon get one to $10000 plus for just 10 linear feet.  Between this being able to see and reach becomes rather problematic.  I am aware of the kitchen triangle.   I at one time worked as a kitchen designer.  

OK next silly question.. sensor thermister  this might sound odd but if the pump does not shut down you may be pumping some of your heat out at night..  just going thru various permutations that might find the problem.  You did not mention if you have an internal or external heat exchanger for the vacuum tubes into the storage tank

I have read what you said and makes me wonder if you should check the thermostat and the upper element.. either could keep you from getting adequate heating. Just something to check along with perhaps putting an amp meter on them to see what the actual amp draw is

did not see whether you are running electric in the house from solar PV.  I would say point of use on a 110 outlet to get the preheated water up to 120 degrees.  I like propane fired with an outdoor unit again point of use to also get the water up to usable temp.  As was mentioned a bbq size bottle would be more than enough.  One other comment.  suggest you increase the amount of insulation in and out of your evac tube system.  Even a little bit exposed can drop its output to your storage tank by as much as 50%

best thing to do before building a solar hot water system is do enough reading and watch enough video that you can actually talk to others.  Doing hot water using the sun is not hard but if you do not understand that you can only get x number of btu of heat out from what you put in you are not going to go very far.

couple of thoughts and questions.  how do you pump the water to the tank.  Is the outlet of the tubes slightly higher than the inlet of the 30 tube array.  Have you considered that the 30 tube is just not enough to actually supply?  Do you normally take your shower morning or evening.  Do you have a coil in the tank or an external heat exchanger.  kind of important to know so we actually have more idea about what is going on.  I did notice that your roof is at 20 degree slope so this is ideal for summer heat but if you look at the angle of sun in the winter it is Way to low to produce enough heat.  Where I am 70 degree so almost flat is good for summer and because the sun is low in the sky in winter I need to be much closer to 35 degree from perpendicular.   This in itself may need to be addressed and see where you are.  With evacuated tubes they tend to stay with light fairly perpendicular to the arc of the sun but not the azimuth