Build a Simple Solar Heater

Mother Earth News ^ | Dec/Jan 2007 issue | Gary Resya

[Uncledave]

Thought the handyman types on the list might enjoy this one

[Uncledave]

Renewable Energy Ping

Please Freep Mail me if you'd like on/off

[Uncledave]

[Tinman]

Thanks for the post.

I plan on doing some building, well off the utility grid, and I'm always on the lookout for this kind of stuff.

Regards

[dayglored]

Passive solar is a great, simple, and reliable technology. I like this fellow's design.

Wife and I came up with a similar scheme for boosting the temperature of a second-floor space in a previous house. No electricity (we're off-grid), no moving parts, very little to go wrong or degrade over time.

It's not for the impatient -- passive solar is not going to raise temperatures immediately, nor every day (especially up here in Upstate NY where overcast is common). But it's very low investment, and has a very reasonable benefit/cost ratio.

[alfa6]

Marker Bump

[Right Wing Assault]

I would build in a way to vent summer heat to the outside. It's going to get blazing hot inside the thing. Bad for the glazing. Also, you don't want that hot thing against your house all summmer. I didn't read the whole article, but didn't see him say more than close vents in the summer. Sorry if I missed it.

[layman]

BTTT

[I see my hands]

"environmental concerns about using nonrenewable fossil fuels"

More accurately stated would be: religious concerns about using nonrenewable fossil fuels.

[Syntyr]

Thanks!!!

[OldCorps]

btt

[Uncledave]

Making the black absorber plates removable should do the trick.

[econjack]

Neat design! I built a cabin in Canada about 300 miles north of Toronto and thought about this as well as a small wind generator using a police car alternator and inverter combination. To increase the thermal mass of the collector, I was going to use large river rocks (which are in unlimited supply up there!) painted black and loosely positioned in the air flow to retain some heat during the night. Alas, the power grid came to me before I could implement the design.

[southland]

BTT

[Leisler]

Get rid of the polycarbonate. Go to any glass supply, repair place. They usually have piles of intact but defective glass slide door inserts. Thermopane. The defects are cosmetic. Scratches, weird multihue colors, bb. size chip on surface, stuff like that. About $5 apiece for say a 3 foot by six foot six inches.

[msnimje]

I just bought a greenhouse this fall and I am shocked at just how hot it gets in there even when cold outside.

Thanks for posting this, maybe I can turn my greenhouse into a solar heater for my shed?

[ProtectOurFreedom]

That's nothing. I cook all my hot dogs on my solar cooker...

[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

It looks like the "Trombe" wall they were hawking thirty years ago. They sure haven't taken the world by storm in that time.

[ASOC]

Thanks for posting. Not really going to work here in Anchorage in any significant way.

I do put a smaller version of this in my South facing living room window & it really adds to the heat we get in the daytime - and adds a little more privacy.

Good point about summer use as made made earlier.

The Mother Earth News, bringing you essentially the same articles since 1970...if you don't get it the first time.....

[UB355]

All kinds of ideas here

http://www.homepower.org