my new solar air heater

[Brian McGowan]

Just a quick note.
I went to the fabric store to buy the black polyester felt for my new solar air heater at lunch today. A 6' x 9' piece cost me $10.47. I need a 4' x 8.5ish' piece. As I was waiting to have my felt cut I read the label on the end of the roll and it said "made from 100% post consumer recycled plastic bottles". So recycled plastic bottles are going to be the absorber for the air heater that will help me use less heating oil. How green is that?
I am taking pictures as I build and will post some when I have enough to show reasonable progress.
Brian

[Brian McGowan]

I think I have completed this project. If the weather cooperates on Sunday I will deploy it outside and hook it up.

Here is a bad picture. I took alot of pictures and when i get them thinned down into a decent description of the build I will update my website and post a link.

http://home.comcast.net/~bigvid/100_5999s.JPG
http://home.comcast.net/~bigvid/100_5997s.JPG

I couldn't figure out how to put the picture right here so I provided the link.

Brian

[Joe Blake]

Like this you mean?

Just add the tag [im g] (WITHOUT the space) to the beginning of your URL for your photo and then the end tag [/im g] again without the space. So it looks like this.



[im g]http://home.comcast.net/~bigvid/12vmanpics/100_5993s.JPG[/im g]

http://home.comcast.net/~bigvid/12vmanpics/100_5993s.JPG

Joe

[Brian McGowan]

Yes Joe like that. Thanks. I kept clicking the "insert image" icon but nothing was happening. After I sent the message and turned off the computer it came to me that maybe I had to have the link highlighted. The text command works well and I understand that so I'll probably just do that. I don't know why I didn't think of that.
Thanks again.
Brian

[Brian McGowan]

New solar air heater installed and operational.
http://home.comcast.net/~bigvid/12vgroup/100_5999s.JPG

This is the bright point on the first day in operation.
http://home.comcast.net/~bigvid/12vgroup/100_5997s.JPG
It went downhill from here until you could hardly see the trees at the edge of the woods because the fog was so dense. Rather than just be totally cloudy all day I was actually in a cloud all day just to make absolutely sure I would not see it work while I’m home. Sunday’s weather was no better. Today, of course, I'm at work and it is bright and sunny.
More pictures when I get my website updated.
Brian

[Ralph Day]

Looks good Brian.

Did you have to poke holes in walls or pass through windows to get the hot air into the house and the "cold"air into the heater? Can't tell by the pictures. Is it convection only or are muffin fans used to pump the air through...thermostats etc? I have used barn fan thermostats to help move heated air before, they are dead simple and robust.

Ralph

[Brian McGowan]

Ralph,
The basement windows are removable so I took one out and replaced it with a piece of plywood with a pair of duct starting collars and a hole for wires to go through. I could remove the plywood and return the window in minutes if needed but when I take the box down I just cover them with duct covers.
I use muffin fans controlled with a small simple 12V circuit I made powered by my little solar power setup that compares the temp in the room with the temp in the box and turns on the fan when the box is warmer than the room.

More info on my now very outdated website since none of the boxes pictured there are actually in service at this time.
http://home.comcast.net/~bigvid/solarbox.html

The fan control circuit schematic is located on the "Links to information" page and is in "word" format so you can DL and open and print it if you want. Let me know if you can't find it. I really should probably put it on the heater solar box page also.

Brian

[Rob Beckers]

Brian, take a look at this thread (http://www.greenpowertalk.org/showthread.php?t=5028). It has fairly detailed instructions on inserting pictures in posts. It's not complicated to add pictures, but I understand that unless you know 'how' it can be a bit of a puzzle.

Hope this helps!

-RoB-

[Joseph OLall]

Here are some pictures of a solar hot box that themosyphons ....19deg air in - over 150deg out..not bad. My problem was location....it must be placed where there are no tree shades/shadows. That would mean locating it some 70ft away from my home to receive the sun in the clear from 9am-3pm. 70ft of insulated ductwork becomes challenging!!

I used a CPU blower fan to circulate the air thru the box. Later on I powered this cpu fan with a unisolar PV panel that directly controlled the cfm based on the amount of sunlight.

I just need to plan a much bigger version of this to feed my home ...on the back burner for now.


595

[Rob Beckers]

Joseph, nice work!
I've been wondering about their effectiveness with a little shading: My 'barn' (as described in another thread) has a south-east facing side that has trees next to it. However, in winter with the leaves gone it gets pretty sunny there. The thought has occurred to make solar air heaters and mount them vertically on that side, to get extra heat in winter (when it is needed). In summer they would be shaded completely by the trees.

How did you make yours? What materials are in there?

-RoB-

[Joseph OLall]

Nothing more than black felt (Walmart), NASA space blankets, 2 sheets of polycarbonate, aluminum spacers, wooded frame box.

[John Canivan]

Black polyester felt is an an amazing material. It's even more amazing when you trickle water on it. I call this a modified trickle down solar heating system or MTD. My sun shed consists of 6 MTD collectors that I use as a roof and 200 gallons of hot water storage inside. For the last 4 days the temperature inside the storage tanks has been between 130F and 140F. Now if I could only find a use for all this stored heat.

http://www.jc-solarhomes.com/MTD/MTD%20Data/mtd_data.htm

John