I took a solar energy class back in the '70's when if you wanted to do anything with solar, you had to build it yourself. I am glad to see that there are still people who can build things!! If I might make a suggestion about a solar air heater. Build a box like you did, but leave some room for insulation. Cut some plywood for the back, and put some insulation on it. Styrofoam sheets are easy to work with. Put some cleats on the inside of the frame, and you may have to put a few supports in the middle of the box. Put corrugated metal roofing on top of the cleats, and paint that flat black. Your idea of using reclaimed windows is fantastic. Abs plastic pipe is a great idea, with the inlet at the bottom and exhaust at the top. Insulate the pipes that are outside. For more efficiency, tilt the box upward so that the angle to the ground is the latitude you are at, plus 10 degrees. This will aim it at the sun better in the winter. Keep up the good work, and keep experimenting with things.
We built a few a couple of years ago with 4x8 sheets of 3/8" plywood and some 1x4s around the sides to frame it. Used some scrap 1x4s for a raceway inside and painted it all flat black inside. Once we sealed some old windows to the front we hooked a squirrel cage fan to the bottom end and some venting at the top. On a good day it would run a 25 x 20 garage shop to over 80 with a start temp in the 30s in under an hour. Quickly fitted it with a temp control on the fan. Used a similar design for solar water heaters using some 55 gallon drums of water, a 4'x4' solar chamber with 1" black pipe in a coil. Using a pond pump for circulation, the water was kept near scalding all day and well into the night. Insulated drums were still hot the next morning.
A note to anyone who wants to try this: The return air line needs to be as large as the hot air line. Both have to be insulated. The collector box needs to be insulated. Otherwise you’ll just be collecting heat and radiating it back into the outside air.
I got around to putting some black spray paint on it and put a computer fan on it as well. For about 2 or 3 hours, it puts out heat like a hair dryer... works very well. I've put a large mirror on the ground so it reflects additional sun into the box. Fun project to monitor and fiddle with!
I’ve noticed my oil heat is lasting much longer this year because I turned down the spray pressure and I opened the vents to my basement. Heating the basement ensures a more steady upstairs heat. Because heat rises
Basically I am saying redirect this ABS pipe to your basement if it is toasty down there due to its thermal mass and bricks , upstairs should remain a good temperature
I like the simplicity of your design. Makes it more likely that someone will try it. Some people over think this type of project or maybe they enjoy working with different materials. Either way it's great to see American ingenuity at work.
+Amy Luthien I see he has not replied to you, the reason for that is that he saved next to nothing. I tried a similar system to heat a pool and the out going water was only 2 or 3 degrees warmer than the water going into the hose. So there is no way to heat a house with that system.
+Manfred Westeroth I'm sorry for not quickly responding to this question. I have responded to a similar question and even posted a follow up video with data. Please take a look at my other responses, to these good questions, to more quickly get a response.
Water has a high specific heat. If you got it to rise 2 degrees on a pass through a collector you were doing good. That is why a coil of plastic pipe on a roof is a good pool heater. It takes heat from the sun and the air. 72 degree water-95 degree roof temp and close air temp.Just buy the flat 2 by 20 ft pool heaters that lay on the roof.
Several things I want to mention. This could work, but needs some tweaking. First, place the unit as close to the window as possible (underneath). Second, use rigid 4" PVC pipe, wrapped with pipe insulation and then covered with 6" PVC sleeve to keep air warm as it goes from the chamber and into the house area. Third, use larger diameter intake pipes (1" up to 1 1/2"?_ to remove air from inside the house. Fourth. use a hole saw to cut a 4" hole in the wall (under the window) so that the PVC would fit snugly. (this keeps your house secure, looks far better). Install a collar on the outside using silicone caulk for a tight weatherproof seal. Install a deflector on the inside (with screen material inside the pipe to keep little critters out). Up to here, anyone who is fairly handy, can do all of these. Fifth (and toughest) install a damper controller inside the rigid pipe, wired to a thermostat to open when the air temps reach an ambient set temp and to close when it temp falls below the setting where you actually lose heat. This may not be as difficult as it might appear. (I installed a fan in an old gravity furnace, turning it into a forced air unit in my first house, back in 1972) Ran vent pipes from the plenum up through the floor and to the second floor where I spit the pipes off to two bedrooms and bathroom. It worked unbelievably well! Made a world of difference!!!!) I also have a B-I-L research engineer who could help me if I decide to go this way. This would make a nice and inexpensive way to heat an insulated shed in the winter time! I'll have to try this for sure!
.... slower air intake allows the air to warm sufficiently. IF its passing through too quickly it wont allow enough time to excite the electrons enough
@@Cotronixco its obviously only a proof of concept and not intended to heat his entire house. Dont shit on the man, these kinds of ideas are what will slow global warming. It is obvious that change is only going to come from the people.
@@Cotronixco Wow... you must have your head in the sand. It is obvious that the climate is warming and don't tell me your one of the idiots that has fallen for the corporate sponsored misinformation campaigns.... Just like big tobacco had studies that showed smoking was good for you while people were dying of cancer in the 50's, or more recently how companies misled doctors regarding the current opioid epidemic and were at the same time developing methadone and suboxone for harm reduction programs... I don't need to defend the truth, and attempting too to someone that intentionally refuses too see it is pointless anyways. I suppose you believe thetrade center towers were brought down by planes too..... Simple logic, how do 2 planes bring down 3 buildings?
@@newsnowadirondacksredux360 Not necessarily. it looks like 1/8 inch glass with jmold around it. No difference than what some have in their windows these days. single pane or double pane. I'm wondering if the glass is tempered.
It worked well a few weeks ago as we had sunny days that were cold. With direct sunlight, and I put a computer fan connected to a timer, the unit produces heat similar to a hair dryer (well over 100 degrees). The unit certainly helps keep the house warmer but I should've left this unit to states that have sun (I live in Oregon). It is all much fun to test and play with, though.
At first glance, the inlet pipes from the house look a bit small. It seems a better match would be 4" insulated flexible duct for the inlet, and 6" for the outlet (to match your internal hose diameter). (obviously need the larger outlet hose due to thermal expansion of the heated air) Insulating the inlet pipe will help keep the box inlet temperature as high as possible from the house return air, and insulate the outlet to prevent loss of BTU's across that 3-4 feet of black pipe going back to the house. I would imagine as shown, there's little chance of getting any natural convection-flow (without the fan), but if you remove the inlet & outlet restrictions, it should be able to self-regulate... a higher temperature rise will cause more convection flow, preventing cold-air from being circulated when cloud cover happens. Just my $.02 worth... Thanks for your video!!
I've seen many versions. This one is interesting, however virtually every build includes very well done insulation inside the boxes and of course, on the ductwork. What I have NEVER seen, is a minimum of double pane windows. Triple pane would be even better. Not a big deal if you're in a warm/cool climate, but definitely a HUGE deal if you're in a cold climate region.
@@robinmills9278 you can buy 12 v solar panels that run chains of less off ebay for $5 cut the wire add a fan ....you can run them off a watch battery ffs
when looking for those panels consider old screen doors or even a glass door. you just gave me an excellent idea for what to do with that pane of glass as big as a door. But in those old style doors where they have the small panel of metal on bottom for a kick panel then the glass that slides up and down. that panel, if found, would be perfect
Better design would be to have the intake close to the floor of the house (and a much larger intake than those tiny tubes), this way, since heat rises and cold falls, the air would circulate naturally, and more freely, than having them at the same height. Also, you should orient the glass so it is directly perpendicular to the sun in the coldest months, for maximum solar gain.
Dmitriy good idea, I see these outdated Tv's all the time in my city So the next time I come across one Im going to pick it up and remove the screen to use for a solar build.
@@ANGLINARMY ahh vern does work this is just a take on old system used back in 50s and still used back in eastern northern states...check old popular mechanics and home improvement articles though theirs were much larger
@@miguelcastaneda7236 Mother Earth News had several types of solar heaters. One of them was portable - use in winter, remove in warmer weather. It was tilted to catch more sun.
I've seen a couple systems like this. You can use more of the space in the box by replacing the dryer vent tubing with aluminum cans that are drilled out top & bottom and sealed together end to end. I'd also suggest wrapping the exterior PVC pipe in some insulation to prevent any heat loss on its way to the house from the box. Love this idea in general though. Cheers!
Sammy Dewald, have you also noticed that nobody considers heat loss through single pane windows? Double pane -- at a minimum. Triple pane -- even better.....
John Shilling more panes the better, I’d imagine cost would be an issue for folks doing this kind of project on a minimum budget. But maybe they have spares some how or a building supply thrift store nearby.
I am about to go off grid my self and ideas such as yours are very helpful . I'm doing the first couple of months with no power at all. I think it's going to be a great learning process. I will be uploading videos as the project progresses . So long from the Great White North.
Wind at the coast is phenomenal. Wind in the Eugene area is very limited. When the weather systems move East, from the coast, they create high winds in certain areas where the valley meets the Cascades (unfortunately, not where I'm at so much now). The solar furnace idea is certainly the most efficient way to harness green power that I've come across so far.
Sweet project, thanks for sharing! I wonder if there's a way to make it have any noticeable difference in the winter like in Minnesota where in the winter there's little sunlight and sub freezing temps. One idea that would probably be huge for this is you could install a 2nd window and silicone all the cracks to make an insulated air space. Then add a low-e mylar film to the outside surface of the inside window and that would allow solar energy to enter your heater box but greatly limit the energy loss back to the outside. Most low-e windows have the coating on the outside pane inside surface to limit the uv light coming in in the summer but low-e was originally applied to mylar film and installed in the first setup to help heat the room, called it solar mirror. When people accidental install a low-e insulated glass unit backwards, it really heats a room up! Also thinking if you could somehow manage to run the hot air in tube up high on the opposite side of the room and then the cold air out low into the heater box would circulate the air in the room better. If I knew something like this would work in the winters here, i'd try putting one on the garage.
My Uncle did this type of thing 30 years ago. Built a box with skinny dividers using scrap paneling to form channels like a maze (All painted black with a plexiglass cover.) with a thermal trip damper to let the warm air in to the garage. No fans to bypass the heat vrs.cold. It was kinda cool! Bigger at the entrance and got narrower as it got to the exit!
ive been doing hvac for over 15 years and if your heating a small closet that may slightly work. get ductulator app on your phone and it'll help you figure out what all you need to make this actually work. ground temp is also constant.
Building a few small solar heaters for my farm animals. It will be rarely used here in Louisiana, but cold snaps do happen, and i really don't like heat lamps around animal bedding.
I like the idea of the computer fan! I felt the top of the unit today and it was just darned hot! I think the unit will produce a bit of heat in my house but the real joy is playing around with this as a project. Let me know how yours goes.
Keep at it, brother! Every genius began by tinkering, whatever their field. To everybody that criticizes you, ask them how well they performed the first time they had sex. Ask them if they gave up. Ask them if practice "makes better". Another thing to consider. Nobody is born with knowledge or skills. They learn it from other people, other sources. A very miniscule part of what people know comes from a truly unique and original thought. Most of us are parrots, repeating what we've heard. Copying what we've seen. It's shocking that so few people understand this, and if they do, they apply it to everyone else, never themselves! -- ! BECAUSE ! "I'm so much smarter than you are!" LOL, again! I would like to see your critics attempt to make a square cut. Attempt to build and install their project square, plumb, and level. Most critics I've come across only have one skill..., NITPICKING...!
would have to be much more efficient for NE Ohio area as we get hardly any sun during winter. One good start would be having your intake coming from the cool basement air instead of drawing out the same warm air you're putting into it.
Why would you want to pull cool air from the basement? You want to heat the air in the house, that's why you pull air from the house. Pulling cool air from the basement will just require more solar energy to heat it to a comfortable temperature.
There is a great fan design for this type of project. I used to see them in kitchens mostly. The fan is turned on with a pull chain that also opens a sealed vent at the same time. Turn the fan off and the vent automatically closes air tight. Another idea that makes it more automatic would be to use a driver vent with a flap that only lets air go one way. A duct fan attached to a thermostat would get air flowing in the right direction at a preset temperature.
thats crazy talk! all you need is to set up a few heliostats that are maintenance free that boost this system! just use some reflective insulation from lowes. its mylar one side and insulation the other so it has some strength to it as well and is totally rot and weather resistant and cheap
And that they should also be black. Why not have the air start the warming cycle on its way to the solar collector and that the intake pipe should have full sun exposure as the return pipe does. If there was a fan of any kind in his project I could not see it.
The convection of the warmed air will create an upflow without the dryer vent (maybe better) and you can drill some vent holes (use some screen mesh to cover them) on the bottom of the enclosure for fresh air. You can cut your exhaust hoses shorter (for greater flow), and just let them hang a few feet below the window (maybe cover with screen mesh to keep bugs out). I made one of these with painted styrofoam I had hollowed out and two layers of bubble wrap on the front. It worked great.
we are gathering supplies today to try. and for the glass windows, we have a solid pane, storm door, we are going to work with. be bigger but should work.
I would have got rid of that clump of weeds and built the furnace right under the window and vented it straight in. Good job though. Also you can find big screen TV's on the curb and take the Fresnel lens off of them for more concentrated solar gain. Almost makes me wish I didn't live in South Florida. almost.
I agree with Rusty, even though it's painted with black paint the heat is repelled by the shiny surface after penetration of the paint. Totally black throughout is the most efficient way to go. Matt black is the most heat absorbent.
There are a lot of ways to make one of these, but I haven't seen this way yet. A couple of points, though. Seems to me that the return lines are undersized. Also, they should pick up at floor level where the coldest air is. And the exhaust should be directed upward a bit so as to not mix too soon with the cold floor air that you want to go to the furnace. Thanks for the video.
@Raymond Gulley I realise this was quite some time ago and you may have a more suitable heating system now - but if not, you may want to consider a compost air heater. It doesn't necessarily have to be a huge heap of it. I can imagine a compost tumbler with a few pipes through it (downspout is cheapest?). If it can be angled slightly, then it will work without a fan - or a small fan could be used to pump more heat....A gravity powered fan would keep it 100% non-electrical. Not sure how long those gravity fans can run...at least an hour would be useful. Or have both - a slight tilt for continuous heat convection and gravity fan for extra heat distribution in the evenings? Regular turning of the tumbler will keep it aerated and therefore aerobic. It would have to be emptied and refilled fairly often...I guess maybe every 2-3 weeks, depending on size. But much easier than building a huge Jean Pain style heap. I've seen something like this before, but they had over-complicated it. I need to have a go myself shortly.
Id install it on the roof or at least away from the house in a open sunlight area for better operating range in hours and put the intake lower to the floor and the exhaust higher up for better efficiency in warming cold air i do like this build though it captures the engineer in me
I'm building something similar to this design. Items I used are: 36×72 frame from 2x6s backed with 3/4 in ply .5 inch insulation sheet 24' black aluminum flex duct 90 degree plastic elbows 2-8' flex duct for in and out piping to house 4" inline duct motor with speed control. 2 glass sheets Everything is black in the box. I plan on 2-45 degree mirrors to help deflect the sun in to max out exposure as well. I'll eventually convert to solar powered blower, just need a deep cycle battery to hook to a large power converter I got for free. Hopefully I'll get a video up showing specs and temps. It will be piped through a window with blower pumping up, while intake line will feed closer to the floor.
Insulate the pipe from the furnace to the house, you'll lose a lot of heat there. The bleed off from the cold air will not be offset by the black paint.
Seems to me you would want to draw the air at the top of the box instead of the bottom, as warm air rises. A simple reworking of the dryer vent tubing would accomplish this
Thanks for the vid. I am curious to know why you put the aluminum pipe work in.I would have thought if you made the box airtight, with a row of small holes at the bottom, it might work better, because the aluminuim pipe obstructs the sunlight striking the black plastic back. As hot air rises it should circulate through convection. It would be interesting to try it out and see which works best. Cheers.
Excellent video, thanks. I build solar-thermal heaters differently. In place of the aluminum hose, I suspend a piece of corrugated sheet metal, painted black. It is nearly as large as the inside dimensions of the box. An opening in the bottom of the box lets in fresh air, and a hole in the back wall of the box goes through to the room. It's also possible to draw room air at floor level into the box through a hole at the bottom. Box should be tall and narrow to aid the chimney effect.
for maximum benefit, you should angle the box at about 45 degrees to maximize the amount of solar raditiation from the sun. also, wood is not a good insulator. you will lose heat to the outside via the wood and the glass. Smaller tubes inside the box would have given you more surface area for heat transfer. Also, one large tube insulated from house to box would allow for better airflow and plus would prevent the air from being cooled as it traveled outside the house to the box. Insulating return line would prevent loss of heat as air exited the box and makes it was to the house. The end result of all of this would be a 10 to 15 degree rise in the temperature of the air
If you were to have maybe 12 or 20 of these units, ON your roof, aimed at the sun, with hooked up with no pipe in between the box and the roof, it might help a bit. Looks bulky tho...
NUTS! Do it for whatever reason you want, especially if you enjoy it. Don't ever consider spending any time - at all - proving yourself to others. Just who TF do they think they are, asking you to prove yourself to them? However, it does help if you're trying to make a sale... Proove it. Then take as much money as you can from the lazy, or ignorant, or no time/talent/skills, nitpicking crowd! (Remembering to be kind to the people that appreciate what you do) What the heck! Be kind as often and with as many people as you can. It's a good way to move from here to there.
@@johnshilling2221 ... If you're gonna take the time to make, edit, and upload a video to show others what you've done, then yes, it would be helpful to show your efforts working. We already know that systems like this will work but if you have a newer design (i.e. not pop cans or gutter spout) then it would be nice to show how well your system works !!
I can assure you it does not work. The amount of heat generated will be trivial, as there is very little solar heat in the winter, which is how winter works, and all of the heat captured will be lost to the ambient air. I tried a solar water heater in the winter using black 5 gallon water tanks and got nothing out of it.
I used 10 aluminum down spout tubes tied into a collector box at the top. My "furnace box" is 2x6 frame with a sheet of cdx plywood for the back and acrylic sheet for the cover. The bottom collector is attached to a hole through the wall into the house at floor level. The top collector is attached through the wall at the ceiling. I installed a muffin fan at the ceiling that is thermostatically controlled. The furnace is very efficient. It produces an average temperature of 170 degrees F on sunny days. It is worth the investment of both time and $$.
If the collector output temp is more than 30 degrees higher than the inlet temp. ,then it running to hot and losing heat to the outside. Move more air.
Insulation. It's a very useful modern product. Insulate your collector, and insulate your pipes (inlets and outlet). Your "furnace" performance will be noticeably improved. You're welcome! 😊
Paint the intake hoses and all the wood on the box black. Then use a black rubber to insulate the inside of the box. Rubber or asphalt holds in heat really well.
why not add a valve on the inlet to the window (accesible from inside of course) to control the amount of heat? If its too hot inside, you can close the valve halfway. In summertime, close it.
+Robert Maybeth That is an excellent idea :) I did a follow up video where I installed a solar panel connected to a small fan which acts similar to a valve.
Without air circulation the box will get extremely hot. I'd suggest to move the whole thing somewhere sun can't hit it in the summer. You lose a lot of heat in the exposed pipe. Awfully small supply line for the house air. That will restrict the amount of hot air you will get. The plastic sheeting probably won't last very long, just paint the wood flat black or dark green.
Interesting build! My only change would be a single, bigger intake instead of the two smalls, so that whatever convection action starts pulling air, there's as little resistence/air-to-pipe-friction as possible
So how did you find it worked? Tell us more about the after installation. Did it perform as well as you had hoped? What did the temperature change to, what to how much more? Did it go into all the rooms?
Sewer pipe connected to a 🚽toilet flange mounted on a POS. All it needs is a flapper valve on the intake to prevent backflow, and a flush handle to purge humidity condensate.
+Rusty Shackelford The aluminum dryer vent, painted with a very thin coat of black paint, is an extremely efficient heat exchanger as it converts solar radiation to heat which is then quickly transferred into the home before it is lost to the cold outside.
+Rusty Shackelford Dryer vent has a number of advantages, provided it's painted black on the outside. First, it will be shiny on the inside which will tend to cut down heat radiation, for much the same reason that a vacuum flask insert is silvered. Second, the corrugations will both increase the amount of surface air for heat collection, and also will cause the air flow to be irregular and hence more likely to pick up heat from the tube. Thirdly, air flow is kept separate from the black paint, so any gases given off by the paint over time aren't directed into the house, but are kept outside the house.
With any pipe a bend will restrict the flow, this corrigated tubing will restrct and cause even more turbulance. This however could be a good thing, slowing down the air flow will give a higher temp output.
Supplemental heat like this small heater reduces the fuel demands on the main furl fired heat source. This is a supplemental heat that has no fuel costs unless you have an electric fan to circulate the air. Fan is probably best but can bring air into the house by convection.
I like this. You might find that your btu gained will go up if you ditch the small hoses and make your inlet and exhaust the same size. The airflow through the unit will increase, improving the heat exchange efficiency inside the heater. Exhaust temperature may drop, but btus will go up, because less heat is being lost in the heater and pipe. Also at a lower temp higher flow situation, you will get less off gassing from plastic parts and paint etc. Sounds counterintuitive, I know, but the most efficient heaters run at lower temps for this reason.
Cool vid. Great idea ! Definitely going to try it out. We had a brutal winter here in Ontario this year and anything that helps get heating costs down is a bonus. Thanks a lot !!
I see what looks like a dryer vent on the side of the house. Couldn't that also be used to reclaim some dryer heat and preheat the box with an extra tube (providing piping to and from house stays sealed for non-toxic air).
Cool idea to use dryer vent. I am trying to heat water with my box and while I can get box temp 60 deg above ambient at winter solstice, I'm not getting enough heat transfer into the water through the small diameter vinyl tubing. I probably need a few hundred feet of tubing in the box, which would be costly. I'm going to try an air heater box instead
Morgan Brown you might try an old car radiator. Thin water passages and many heat transfer fines. Although you may not be able to drink that water. But for just hot water ???
Thanks very good idea. This is better than other web videos in which aluminum cans used, linked with silicone, porexpan, fiberglass insulation, etc. that can contaminate the air circulating at temperatures above 75 degrees. Only painting blak the aluminum tube.
You said "Blow". Where is the "blower"? Does it use convection, or is there a blower? Have you been able to actually use it? Approximately how much heat will this produce for your room? For that matter, how big of a room will this heat?
If you could find some room to put some cans of Crisco, spray painted black, inside this enclosure, they would absorb more heat, and because of the change-of-state phenomenon (see latent heat), They would begin to release this stored heat when the temperature dropped after the sun went down. Can’t be the kind of Crisco that is liquid at room temperature… Has to be the kind that congeals to a consistency like lard or butter at room temp, but melts at like, 90 deg F or so, because it is the change of phase from solid to liquid that stores or releases all the heat.
Nice project, I believe if the intake was at floor level it would circulate on its own, possibly not need a fan. I built one of soda cans and got an average twenty/twenty-five degree difference from intake and exhaust in winter just letting convection do it's job.
I am thinking this would be great to heat a basement in the summer. Yes I said in the summer-our basement is 57 degrees in the summer-too chilly to sit down there and watch TV-hate to spend money to run a heater in the summer and while I like air conditioning- 57 is too cold. This would probably take the chill off and make the basement about the right temp.
I was wondering about using that shiny/reflective flex-tube without making it black. Traditionally, both powered and unpowered solar hot boxes use black materials inside of the box (not just a thin layer of black plastic backing). Ideally you want something in your box that has some good thermal mass to it, so it will absorb heat (you sould pack it with dark rocks). You also might want to spray paint the OUTSIDE (only) of your aluminum tube black (using something like rustolium - done OUTSIDE and then keep the tube in the open air for a few weeks to lose all volatile organics). It is best to use as little plastic as possible, especially in the the parts that that the air passes through. The use of the aluminum flex-pipe in the hot box is a good thing in that regard... but even less plastic would be better. Have you ever tasted water that was left in a plastic bottle in the sun? Plastics give off bad (dangerous to health) substances when they get hot - volatile organics (solvents , softeners, plasticizers) without which the plastic is a brittle fine powder... however all of these things that make the plastic have it shape and other qualities, are bad for living things.
If you don't mind the light being darkened from a window...why not mount the whole thing covering your window. It would be like a super dooper storm window. Cover the whole thing up with black curtains inside, and who would know you have a furnace of sorts there. The back curtains would add to the solar heat draw, into the home. No one is saying you won't need supplemental heat, when the sun isn't out, but daylight hours....a big help.
i cant imagine this thing working in cold weather - the air travels almost just as far in the pipes outside in the cold, as they do inside the "furnace" part.. your drawing warm air out of the house, cooling it, then heating it for few seconds, then cooling it again, and then finally letting it back in the house.. without a video of a thermometer monitoring the ambient temp in the house, and another showing warmer air coming out of that pipe - im calling bullshit on this one..
I totally agree with you. To get this thing to work even slightly you would want the amount of outside piping to be at it's absolute minimum. Having what looks like 4 - 5 feet of piping outside in the cold is going to take any heat generated back out of the air. Also, the lack of any type of mechanical circulation makes me suspect. I'm finding it hard to believe that this device will take in min of 65 F air that would then be subject to further cooling by the hose exposed to external cold and be able to heat it higher than 65 F on a 30 F day (the output would have to be higher than 65 F in order for any type of positive air flow with no mechanical circulation). Even if I accept that, I would think it would only work when the sun is shining directly on the device, so what's the process for not having cold air filter into the house when the device isn't producing heat. You have to lift your window and remove that 2x4 with all the rigid piping attached? Seems like you'd waste more heat doing that than you would gain. I'm not sold that this would really provide any benefit, seems like there's too many holes in the design.
you need to use "lead free" glass expensive but allows so much more of the uv rays to pass through instead of reflecting, heavy flat black "lead" paint (industrial use only) will conduct WAY more heat to your collector than any other paint.
Great simple ides, but just delete the silver, or any hose for that matter. It's counterproductive! Argon filled dual pane glass which is not IR coated, and a flat black or other high emissivity surface inside will be your best bet. Just use the empty cavity inside and insulate the rest of the exterior 😊
benkojr if you did that to a furnace with A/C the a-coil would freeze up due to a lack of air flow. Here is the equation = 200 cfm in = 200 cfm out. Cold air is heavy and falls, hot air is light and rises. 200 cfm of cold air is still 200 cfm of air, hot or cold. The bigger motor is to lift the heavier cold air. You may be confused about condensed and compressed air. Make your intake bigger and put a damper on it to adjust the amount of air and/or the temperature of the air. Slower flow becomes hotter in the heat exchanger.
Think of this ti help remember. If you touch something hot and want to cool off your finger what's the shape of your mouth? And the opposite question, you've just filled four glasses with ice and your hands are cold so you blow in them. What shape is your mouth? Your lungs are the same size in both. But the temperature is colder or hotter (relatively speaking) (Technically that's an example of pressure. But since pressure and density are positively correlated (increase/decrease in the same direction ) it can still help us remember this. Cold air uses less space ( more dense) then hot air (less dense or light) so the same amount if air going in the small tube warms up and needs space to be. It can work with the same size the while way. Smaller would be better and larger. And if the tube is the same size there will be more pressure so the warmed air will blow out faster as compared to the small intake version.
The unit produces heat very well and is still in use. In response to a few of the comments that I've read, the dryer ducting is very effective. I put a small computer fan on the outlet and it is wired to a 12 volt solar cell (as recommended by one comment)... the unit, when there is direct sun on it, produces heat like a hair dryer. In addition, yes having a better intake would make the unit more efficient but it is operationally adequate the way it is and I'm super happy with it.
I'm just curious as to how well this set up works when the weather gets really cold as in the middle of January at night when the temp. goes below zero or in extended periods of single digit high temps.
It seems to me that a massive advantage of this design is that the black paint(s) used to help heat absorption are completely separated from the air flow. Most other designs have air flowing past painted surfaces and then being ducted into the house, with no regard being paid to what nasty chemicals the paints might give off when exposed to the sun over many years - chemicals that will be breathed in by the house's inhabitants. By keeping the airflow separate from the paint, this problem is completely eliminated.
+Darryl Edington "any heat from the fan motor is added to the desired result" REALLY??? because out of 100% energy used by fan motor maybe 5% is converted to heat. A fan converts electrostatic potential energy to kinetic energy and not heat!!!
8 років тому+2
+Persian5word kinetic energy is converted to heat eventually too. No energy is loss when you want heat. The only better way to get heat from electricity (than 100%) is with a thermal pump (air conditioner) and those get around 300% efficiency. Ask any mechanical engineer...
You could use that glass/ mirror thing.. Looking glass on one side and mirror on the other side, so all the light and heat that goes into the box stays into the box..
I liked the idea of using the dryer vent pipe. You may not know it but you have a big air leak between the windows where they normally seal in the middle. I would think you would need to increase the size of the intake pipe to be the same size as the bigger exhaust pipe to get better air flow, the 2 little pipes are not going to let much air pass through them. Also the pipe coming from the collector needs to be insulated so you don't loose the heat collected.
You could make this more efficient by: 1. Adding a small DC fan inside the pipe to move the air. Fan could be solar powered. 2. Have the air intake for your dryer tubing outside of the box, not inside. That way you can seal the box and allow the air inside it to get warm, increasing efficiency by enveloping the entire pipe in heated air.
I like your Project, I have built a unit myself, using pop cans. I have added mirrors to boost the capacity. Next unit will be at least doublé the size and probably consist of flexible alu ducts. Thanks for sharing, regards from Mexico City
Does it really get cold in Mexico City? I'm now wondering if this will work in Chicago and considering the sub-zero weather we've been having here, it's been a cold winter.
daschundloverable Hi: I'm in Idaho, near Boise... I've used something similar to heat here. I have a south facing window and made mine inside the window sill. I get 140*F on a 10*F but sunny day. As long as you have sun, you'll have heat no matter how cold it is outside. No sun, no heat.
2JobsStillPoorUSA Oh, thank you!!!! About how much sf would you say it can heat? Are you using this the same one or something similar? I am very disabled and found one that uses only pop cans and that thick styrofoam? insulation, which would make it very easy to put in place in the only window I have on the south side. I've looked at so many of these, I can't remember which one this one is. There are some really good ideas out there!!! Did you know the EPA is outlawing wood stoves?
daschundloverable My house is 1325 sq feet. The main area the heater heats is the living room, dining and kitchen. At night, after the sun goes down I block off the vents because the heater does act as a heat sink, cooling air. In my case it works best from about 11:30am to about 3pm during the day. Although I think it would work best with some sort of solar fan situation, for me it is more of a supplement to the furnace. It would certainly heat a 24x24 foot room to a comfortable level. Mine is 1.5" styrofoam sheathing with a piece of metal siding centered front to back so the heated air can travel up both sides.The sheathin is protected by some self adhesive aluminum backed insulation. I just wedged mine in the window sill. (my windows are single pane, aluminum ones.) I would not use my method on vinyl windows. One note... it did get hot enough to MELT the styrofoam. Next one will be wood, with furnace vents to open and close.
I took a solar energy class back in the '70's when if you wanted to do anything with solar, you had to build it yourself. I am glad to see that there are still people who can build things!! If I might make a suggestion about a solar air heater. Build a box like you did, but leave some room for insulation. Cut some plywood for the back, and put some insulation on it. Styrofoam sheets are easy to work with. Put some cleats on the inside of the frame, and you may have to put a few supports in the middle of the box. Put corrugated metal roofing on top of the cleats, and paint that flat black. Your idea of using reclaimed windows is fantastic. Abs plastic pipe is a great idea, with the inlet at the bottom and exhaust at the top. Insulate the pipes that are outside. For more efficiency, tilt the box upward so that the angle to the ground is the latitude you are at, plus 10 degrees. This will aim it at the sun better in the winter. Keep up the good work, and keep experimenting with things.
We built a few a couple of years ago with 4x8 sheets of 3/8" plywood and some 1x4s around the sides to frame it. Used some scrap 1x4s for a raceway inside and painted it all flat black inside. Once we sealed some old windows to the front we hooked a squirrel cage fan to the bottom end and some venting at the top. On a good day it would run a 25 x 20 garage shop to over 80 with a start temp in the 30s in under an hour. Quickly fitted it with a temp control on the fan. Used a similar design for solar water heaters using some 55 gallon drums of water, a 4'x4' solar chamber with 1" black pipe in a coil. Using a pond pump for circulation, the water was kept near scalding all day and well into the night. Insulated drums were still hot the next morning.
I need your blueprints!
Can you give us a link to buy the blueprints? I want to build off grid in Wyoming. This would be extremely helpful.
A note to anyone who wants to try this:
The return air line needs to be as large as the hot air line. Both have to be insulated. The collector box needs to be insulated. Otherwise you’ll just be collecting heat and radiating it back into the outside air.
That's what I was thinking, shouldn't be insulted inside the box but everything outside should be
I got around to putting some black spray paint on it and put a computer fan on it as well. For about 2 or 3 hours, it puts out heat like a hair dryer... works very well. I've put a large mirror on the ground so it reflects additional sun into the box. Fun project to monitor and fiddle with!
I’ve noticed my oil heat is lasting much longer this year because I turned down the spray pressure and I opened the vents to my basement. Heating the basement ensures a more steady upstairs heat. Because heat rises
Basically I am saying redirect this ABS pipe to your basement if it is toasty down there due to its thermal mass and bricks , upstairs should remain a good temperature
I like the simplicity of your design. Makes it more likely that someone will try it. Some people over think this type of project or maybe they enjoy working with different materials. Either way it's great to see American ingenuity at work.
I like your use of the dryer hose. It's a lot better than messing around with piles of aluminum cans! Thanks!
+Amy Luthien I see he has not replied to you, the reason for that is that he saved next to nothing. I tried a similar system to heat a pool and the out going water was only 2 or 3 degrees warmer than the water going into the hose. So there is no way to heat a house with that system.
+Manfred Westeroth Sorry for the mistake, this was to be a reply toSpiritBear
+Manfred Westeroth I'm sorry for not quickly responding to this question. I have responded to a similar question and even posted a follow up video with data. Please take a look at my other responses, to these good questions, to more quickly get a response.
Water has a high specific heat. If you got it to rise 2 degrees on a pass through a collector you were doing good. That is why a coil of plastic pipe on a roof is a good pool heater. It takes heat from the sun and the air. 72 degree water-95 degree roof temp and close air temp.Just buy the flat 2 by 20 ft pool heaters that lay on the roof.
you should use your dryer exhaust to add heat to the solar furnace too!!
Several things I want to mention. This could work, but needs some tweaking. First, place the unit as close to the window as possible (underneath). Second, use rigid 4" PVC pipe, wrapped with pipe insulation and then covered with 6" PVC sleeve to keep air warm as it goes from the chamber and into the house area. Third, use larger diameter intake pipes (1" up to 1 1/2"?_ to remove air from inside the house. Fourth. use a hole saw to cut a 4" hole in the wall (under the window) so that the PVC would fit snugly. (this keeps your house secure, looks far better). Install a collar on the outside using silicone caulk for a tight weatherproof seal. Install a deflector on the inside (with screen material inside the pipe to keep little critters out). Up to here, anyone who is fairly handy, can do all of these. Fifth (and toughest) install a damper controller inside the rigid pipe, wired to a thermostat to open when the air temps reach an ambient set temp and to close when it temp falls below the setting where you actually lose heat. This may not be as difficult as it might appear. (I installed a fan in an old gravity furnace, turning it into a forced air unit in my first house, back in 1972) Ran vent pipes from the plenum up through the floor and to the second floor where I spit the pipes off to two bedrooms and bathroom. It worked unbelievably well! Made a world of difference!!!!) I also have a B-I-L research engineer who could help me if I decide to go this way. This would make a nice and inexpensive way to heat an insulated shed in the winter time! I'll have to try this for sure!
Why are the return lines so tiny? You only get out the CFM you put in. Otherwise it has to be made up and wasted elsewhere.
.... slower air intake allows the air to warm sufficiently. IF its passing through too quickly it wont allow enough time to excite the electrons enough
Nice guess. There isn't enough CFM there to heat a doghouse.
@@Cotronixco its obviously only a proof of concept and not intended to heat his entire house. Dont shit on the man, these kinds of ideas are what will slow global warming. It is obvious that change is only going to come from the people.
Not shitting on anyone. Obviously it's a teaching moment for some.
Global warming? LOL. That's a false religion.
@@Cotronixco Wow... you must have your head in the sand. It is obvious that the climate is warming and don't tell me your one of the idiots that has fallen for the corporate sponsored misinformation campaigns.... Just like big tobacco had studies that showed smoking was good for you while people were dying of cancer in the 50's, or more recently how companies misled doctors regarding the current opioid epidemic and were at the same time developing methadone and suboxone for harm reduction programs...
I don't need to defend the truth, and attempting too to someone that intentionally refuses too see it is pointless anyways.
I suppose you believe thetrade center towers were brought down by planes too.....
Simple logic, how do 2 planes bring down 3 buildings?
you're the first person I've come across that doesn't use cans and didn't cut threw their house thank you so much for this video
Seem legit and useful....
I’d love to see some temperature readings, intake air, exhausted air, outside temp., temp at the glasses, etc....
The glass will crack due to thermal stress.
If so, why our window glasses doesn’t crack the same way? They are also exposed to the same sun...
Check out beer can solar convection vids, a few guys do do thermometer readings.
@@newsnowadirondacksredux360 Not necessarily. it looks like 1/8 inch glass with jmold around it. No difference than what some have in their windows these days. single pane or double pane. I'm wondering if the glass is tempered.
It worked well a few weeks ago as we had sunny days that were cold. With direct sunlight, and I put a computer fan connected to a timer, the unit produces heat similar to a hair dryer (well over 100 degrees). The unit certainly helps keep the house warmer but I should've left this unit to states that have sun (I live in Oregon). It is all much fun to test and play with, though.
I hear you, I live in Seattle, would love to live in a place warm enough for this but would you need it?
Can't understand why you didn't spray the coiled tubing black .
Will this work in the Canadian winters?
why not put the intake on the floor? suck out the coldest air in the home?
There is a cabinet in the floor where he put it.I dont think he wants a hole in the cabinet.
At first glance, the inlet pipes from the house look a bit small. It seems a better match would be 4" insulated flexible duct for the inlet, and 6" for the outlet (to match your internal hose diameter). (obviously need the larger outlet hose due to thermal expansion of the heated air)
Insulating the inlet pipe will help keep the box inlet temperature as high as possible from the house return air, and insulate the outlet to prevent loss of BTU's across that 3-4 feet of black pipe going back to the house.
I would imagine as shown, there's little chance of getting any natural convection-flow (without the fan), but if you remove the inlet & outlet restrictions, it should be able to self-regulate... a higher temperature rise will cause more convection flow, preventing cold-air from being circulated when cloud cover happens.
Just my $.02 worth...
Thanks for your video!!
I've seen many versions. This one is interesting, however virtually every build includes very well done insulation inside the boxes and of course, on the ductwork. What I have NEVER seen, is a minimum of double pane windows. Triple pane would be even better. Not a big deal if you're in a warm/cool climate, but definitely a HUGE deal if you're in a cold climate region.
Are you from earth !!?? 1 pane of glass required. Not 2or 3
Agree
How do you get power to run a computer fan?
@@robinmills9278 you can buy 12 v solar panels that run chains of less off ebay for $5 cut the wire add a fan ....you can run them off a watch battery ffs
when looking for those panels consider old screen doors or even a glass door. you just gave me an excellent idea for what to do with that pane of glass as big as a door. But in those old style doors where they have the small panel of metal on bottom for a kick panel then the glass that slides up and down. that panel, if found, would be perfect
I have one of those old glass doors! Thank you for the idea!
Better design would be to have the intake close to the floor of the house (and a much larger intake than those tiny tubes), this way, since heat rises and cold falls, the air would circulate naturally, and more freely, than having them at the same height. Also, you should orient the glass so it is directly perpendicular to the sun in the coldest months, for maximum solar gain.
So why not measure the temperature to demonstrate the effectiveness? Otherwise I am skeptical.
Dmitriy good idea, I see these outdated Tv's all the time in my city
So the next time I come across one Im going to pick it up and remove the screen to use for a solar build.
Good Idea. Remember guy's and girls , too many cooks ruin the stew, Every one has big Ideas. Keep it as simple as possible!. His simple method works!
@@ANGLINARMY ahh vern does work this is just a take on old system used back in 50s and still used back in eastern northern states...check old popular mechanics and home improvement articles though theirs were much larger
@@miguelcastaneda7236 Mother Earth News had several types of solar heaters. One of them was portable - use in winter, remove in warmer weather. It was tilted to catch more sun.
I've seen a couple systems like this. You can use more of the space in the box by replacing the dryer vent tubing with aluminum cans that are drilled out top & bottom and sealed together end to end. I'd also suggest wrapping the exterior PVC pipe in some insulation to prevent any heat loss on its way to the house from the box. Love this idea in general though. Cheers!
Sammy Dewald, have you also noticed that nobody considers heat loss through single pane windows? Double pane -- at a minimum. Triple pane -- even better.....
John Shilling more panes the better, I’d imagine cost would be an issue for folks doing this kind of project on a minimum budget. But maybe they have spares some how or a building supply thrift store nearby.
I am about to go off grid my self and ideas such as yours are very helpful . I'm doing the first couple of months with no power at all. I think it's going to be a great learning process. I will be uploading videos as the project progresses . So long from the Great White North.
Use extended planter boxes to hide the window tubes coming in and out. Just a thought, lol.
Wind at the coast is phenomenal. Wind in the Eugene area is very limited. When the weather systems move East, from the coast, they create high winds in certain areas where the valley meets the Cascades (unfortunately, not where I'm at so much now). The solar furnace idea is certainly the most efficient way to harness green power that I've come across so far.
Nice design. I would insulate the tube running from the collector with closed cell foam and orient the collector for maximum solar gain.
That's a great idea. The only major improvement would be to make the intake hose the same size as the hose that goes back in the house.
OP
Sweet project, thanks for sharing! I wonder if there's a way to make it have any noticeable difference in the winter like in Minnesota where in the winter there's little sunlight and sub freezing temps. One idea that would probably be huge for this is you could install a 2nd window and silicone all the cracks to make an insulated air space. Then add a low-e mylar film to the outside surface of the inside window and that would allow solar energy to enter your heater box but greatly limit the energy loss back to the outside. Most low-e windows have the coating on the outside pane inside surface to limit the uv light coming in in the summer but low-e was originally applied to mylar film and installed in the first setup to help heat the room, called it solar mirror. When people accidental install a low-e insulated glass unit backwards, it really heats a room up! Also thinking if you could somehow manage to run the hot air in tube up high on the opposite side of the room and then the cold air out low into the heater box would circulate the air in the room better. If I knew something like this would work in the winters here, i'd try putting one on the garage.
Good work! So happy that I live in the Southern US. This may heat half of my house... Thanks!
My Uncle did this type of thing 30 years ago. Built a box with skinny dividers using scrap paneling to form channels like a maze (All painted black with a plexiglass cover.) with a thermal trip damper to let the warm air in to the garage. No fans to bypass the heat vrs.cold. It was kinda cool! Bigger at the entrance and got narrower as it got to the exit!
Should have kicked it out on about a 35 degree angle for more direct sunlight.
better yet... roof mounted
The higher the latitude the lower the angle of the sun and the reduction of solar radiation to be captured.
ive been doing hvac for over 15 years and if your heating a small closet that may slightly work. get ductulator app on your phone and it'll help you figure out what all you need to make this actually work. ground temp is also constant.
Building a few small solar heaters for my farm animals. It will be rarely used here in Louisiana, but cold snaps do happen, and i really don't like heat lamps around animal bedding.
I imagine that at night you have a way to block off that system so that it's not just recirculating cold air
_ CheckTease i would think it logical to go with the vent idea all the way and fit a dryer EXHAUST door to prevent backflow of cold air...
I like the idea of the computer fan! I felt the top of the unit today and it was just darned hot! I think the unit will produce a bit of heat in my house but the real joy is playing around with this as a project. Let me know how yours goes.
Keep at it, brother! Every genius began by tinkering, whatever their field. To everybody that criticizes you, ask them how well they performed the first time they had sex. Ask them if they gave up. Ask them if practice "makes better". Another thing to consider. Nobody is born with knowledge or skills. They learn it from other people, other sources. A very miniscule part of what people know comes from a truly unique and original thought. Most of us are parrots, repeating what we've heard. Copying what we've seen. It's shocking that so few people understand this, and if they do, they apply it to everyone else, never themselves! -- ! BECAUSE ! "I'm so much smarter than you are!" LOL, again! I would like to see your critics attempt to make a square cut. Attempt to build and install their project square, plumb, and level. Most critics I've come across only have one skill..., NITPICKING...!
would have to be much more efficient for NE Ohio area as we get hardly any sun during winter. One good start would be having your intake coming from the cool basement air instead of drawing out the same warm air you're putting into it.
Why would you want to pull cool air from the basement? You want to heat the air in the house, that's why you pull air from the house. Pulling cool air from the basement will just require more solar energy to heat it to a comfortable temperature.
Bad idea. We are heading living space. In and out from the heated space is required!
There is a great fan design for this type of project. I used to see them in kitchens mostly. The fan is turned on with a pull chain that also opens a sealed vent at the same time. Turn the fan off and the vent automatically closes air tight. Another idea that makes it more automatic would be to use a driver vent with a flap that only lets air go one way. A duct fan attached to a thermostat would get air flowing in the right direction at a preset temperature.
thats crazy talk! all you need is to set up a few heliostats that are maintenance free that boost this system! just use some reflective insulation from lowes. its mylar one side and insulation the other so it has some strength to it as well and is totally rot and weather resistant and cheap
Why so small of cold air return tubes? I would think you want to open that up.
And that they should also be black. Why not have the air start the warming cycle on its way to the solar collector and that the intake pipe should have full sun exposure as the return pipe does. If there was a fan of any kind in his project I could not see it.
He built it on a budget. If he's anything like me, source what's in your garage before going to the store. The more you tinker=the more you learn.
Good video. Thank you. I'll be using similar. Would have been additionally helpful to see the temperature difference.
The convection of the warmed air will create an upflow without the dryer vent (maybe better) and you can drill some vent holes (use some screen mesh to cover them) on the bottom of the enclosure for fresh air. You can cut your exhaust hoses shorter (for greater flow), and just let them hang a few feet below the window (maybe cover with screen mesh to keep bugs out). I made one of these with painted styrofoam I had hollowed out and two layers of bubble wrap on the front. It worked great.
we are gathering supplies today to try. and for the glass windows, we have a solid pane, storm door, we are going to work with. be bigger but should work.
Two very small diameter pipes feeding the inlet?
No insulation of the pipes?
Collector not angled to the sun?
Too many losses.
This heater doesnt work. Its trash.
@M Detlef 0nly in the spring and fall!
I would have got rid of that clump of weeds and built the furnace right under the window and vented it straight in. Good job though. Also you can find big screen TV's on the curb and take the Fresnel lens off of them for more concentrated solar gain.
Almost makes me wish I didn't live in South Florida. almost.
There maybe codes in his location that requires clear access to windows on the ground floor.
Carla Lindsay
What about Air Conditioners?
AC can be put any where. . .I'm sure anyone who has ever had a unit. . . .doesn't want it in front of a window.
Carla Lindsay
I'm talking about window mounted units.
Those can be shoved out of the way.
I agree with Rusty, even though it's painted with black paint the heat is repelled by the shiny surface after penetration of the paint. Totally black throughout is the most efficient way to go. Matt black is the most heat absorbent.
There are a lot of ways to make one of these, but I haven't seen this way yet. A couple of points, though. Seems to me that the return lines are undersized. Also, they should pick up at floor level where the coldest air is. And the exhaust should be directed upward a bit so as to not mix too soon with the cold floor air that you want to go to the furnace. Thanks for the video.
the undersized returns create a hypnotic whistling noise
@Raymond Gulley I realise this was quite some time ago and you may have a more suitable heating system now - but if not, you may want to consider a compost air heater. It doesn't necessarily have to be a huge heap of it. I can imagine a compost tumbler with a few pipes through it (downspout is cheapest?). If it can be angled slightly, then it will work without a fan - or a small fan could be used to pump more heat....A gravity powered fan would keep it 100% non-electrical. Not sure how long those gravity fans can run...at least an hour would be useful. Or have both - a slight tilt for continuous heat convection and gravity fan for extra heat distribution in the evenings? Regular turning of the tumbler will keep it aerated and therefore aerobic. It would have to be emptied and refilled fairly often...I guess maybe every 2-3 weeks, depending on size. But much easier than building a huge Jean Pain style heap. I've seen something like this before, but they had over-complicated it. I need to have a go myself shortly.
Id install it on the roof or at least away from the house in a open sunlight area for better operating range in hours and put the intake lower to the floor and the exhaust higher up for better efficiency in warming cold air i do like this build though it captures the engineer in me
I'm building something similar to this design. Items I used are:
36×72 frame from 2x6s backed with 3/4 in ply
.5 inch insulation sheet
24' black aluminum flex duct
90 degree plastic elbows
2-8' flex duct for in and out piping to house
4" inline duct motor with speed control.
2 glass sheets
Everything is black in the box.
I plan on 2-45 degree mirrors to help deflect the sun in to max out exposure as well. I'll eventually convert to solar powered blower, just need a deep cycle battery to hook to a large power converter I got for free. Hopefully I'll get a video up showing specs and temps. It will be piped through a window with blower pumping up, while intake line will feed closer to the floor.
Insulate the pipe from the furnace to the house, you'll lose a lot of heat there. The bleed off from the cold air will not be offset by the black paint.
I was thinking along those same lines & that the insulative covering would also have to be painted black.
Seems to me you would want to draw the air at the top of the box instead of the bottom, as warm air rises. A simple reworking of the dryer vent tubing would accomplish this
Thanks for the vid. I am curious to know why you put the aluminum pipe work in.I would have thought if you made the box airtight, with a row of small holes at the bottom, it might work better, because the aluminuim pipe obstructs the sunlight striking the black plastic back. As hot air rises it should circulate through convection. It would be interesting to try it out and see which works best. Cheers.
Black aluminum gets hot fast. Smiley face.
Excellent video, thanks. I build solar-thermal heaters differently. In place of the aluminum hose, I suspend a piece of corrugated sheet metal, painted black. It is nearly as large as the inside dimensions of the box. An opening in the bottom of the box lets in fresh air, and a hole in the back wall of the box goes through to the room. It's also possible to draw room air at floor level into the box through a hole at the bottom. Box should be tall and narrow to aid the chimney effect.
for maximum benefit, you should angle the box at about 45 degrees to maximize the amount of solar raditiation from the sun. also, wood is not a good insulator. you will lose heat to the outside via the wood and the glass. Smaller tubes inside the box would have given you more surface area for heat transfer. Also, one large tube insulated from house to box would allow for better airflow and plus would prevent the air from being cooled as it traveled outside the house to the box. Insulating return line would prevent loss of heat as air exited the box and makes it was to the house. The end result of all of this would be a 10 to 15 degree rise in the temperature of the air
Did you do a test and record what temperature rise you were able to achieve?
If you were to have maybe 12 or 20 of these units, ON your roof, aimed at the sun, with hooked up with no pipe in between the box and the roof, it might help a bit. Looks bulky tho...
You posted this 2 years ago, can you post something to show how well this actually works in winter with a temperature guage, etc...?
They froze to death.
@@ohcliffy Oh my lanta... . . . .
@@ohcliffy 😂😂😂
Zippy DoDah ua-cam.com/video/pHk0PX8pbWY/v-deo.html
And..does it work in winter?
To be a good Scientist or Engineer when you make something you have to prove it works.
NUTS! Do it for whatever reason you want, especially if you enjoy it. Don't ever consider spending any time - at all - proving yourself to others. Just who TF do they think they are, asking you to prove yourself to them?
However, it does help if you're trying to make a sale... Proove it. Then take as much money as you can from the lazy, or ignorant, or no time/talent/skills, nitpicking crowd! (Remembering to be kind to the people that appreciate what you do) What the heck! Be kind as often and with as many people as you can. It's a good way to move from here to there.
@@johnshilling2221 ... If you're gonna take the time to make, edit, and upload a video to show others what you've done, then yes, it would be helpful to show your efforts working. We already know that systems like this will work but if you have a newer design (i.e. not pop cans or gutter spout) then it would be nice to show how well your system works !!
@@huf67 I don't see this helping much for a house, but it could be a solution for a shed that you want to keep from getting below freezing.
"Demonstrate", not prove. Proofs are for mathmatics. In science you demonstrate your concepts and data and experiments all line up cohesively.
I can assure you it does not work. The amount of heat generated will be trivial, as there is very little solar heat in the winter, which is how winter works, and all of the heat captured will be lost to the ambient air.
I tried a solar water heater in the winter using black 5 gallon water tanks and got nothing out of it.
I used 10 aluminum down spout tubes tied into a collector box at the top. My "furnace box" is 2x6 frame with a sheet of cdx plywood for the back and acrylic sheet for the cover. The bottom collector is attached to a hole through the wall into the house at floor level. The top collector is attached through the wall at the ceiling. I installed a muffin fan at the ceiling that is thermostatically controlled. The furnace is very efficient. It produces an average temperature of 170 degrees F on sunny days. It is worth the investment of both time and $$.
If the collector output temp is more than 30 degrees higher than the inlet temp. ,then it running to hot and losing heat to the outside. Move more air.
Insulation. It's a very useful modern product. Insulate your collector, and insulate your pipes (inlets and outlet). Your "furnace" performance will be noticeably improved. You're welcome! 😊
Paint the intake hoses and all the wood on the box black. Then use a black rubber to insulate the inside of the box. Rubber or asphalt holds in heat really well.
why not add a valve on the inlet to the window (accesible from inside of course) to control the amount of heat? If its too hot inside, you can close the valve halfway. In summertime, close it.
+Robert Maybeth That is an excellent idea :) I did a follow up video where I installed a solar panel connected to a small fan which acts similar to a valve.
Without air circulation the box will get extremely hot. I'd suggest to move the whole thing somewhere sun can't hit it in the summer. You lose a lot of heat in the exposed pipe. Awfully small supply line for the house air. That will restrict the amount of hot air you will get. The plastic sheeting probably won't last very long, just paint the wood flat black or dark green.
Interesting build! My only change would be a single, bigger intake instead of the two smalls, so that whatever convection action starts pulling air, there's as little resistence/air-to-pipe-friction as possible
Sh*t up nerd.
So how did you find it worked? Tell us more about the after installation. Did it perform as well as you had hoped? What did the temperature change to, what to how much more? Did it go into all the rooms?
Imagine posting a video then checking it a few years later and there are hundreds of comments telling you how to do it better.
Good use of the natural heat from the sun. Also simple design
Sewer pipe connected to a 🚽toilet flange mounted on a POS. All it needs is a flapper valve on the intake to prevent backflow, and a flush handle to purge humidity condensate.
Would black drain pipe be better to use instead of dryer vent? It seems to me that the foil would repel heat that you want in the tube.
+Rusty Shackelford The aluminum dryer vent, painted with a very thin coat of black paint, is an extremely efficient heat exchanger as it converts solar radiation to heat which is then quickly transferred into the home before it is lost to the cold outside.
+Rusty Shackelford Dryer vent has a number of advantages, provided it's painted black on the outside. First, it will be shiny on the inside which will tend to cut down heat radiation, for much the same reason that a vacuum flask insert is silvered. Second, the corrugations will both increase the amount of surface air for heat collection, and also will cause the air flow to be irregular and hence more likely to pick up heat from the tube. Thirdly, air flow is kept separate from the black paint, so any gases given off by the paint over time aren't directed into the house, but are kept outside the house.
With any pipe a bend will restrict the flow, this corrigated tubing will restrct and cause even more turbulance. This however could be a good thing, slowing down the air flow will give a higher temp output.
Rusty Shackelford
@@steelsail I'm using 4" black flex ducting from amazon. $15 for 24'. In case others are building a similar design
Supplemental heat like this small heater reduces the fuel demands on the main furl fired heat source. This is a supplemental heat that has no fuel costs unless you have an electric fan to circulate the air. Fan is probably best but can bring air into the house by convection.
I like this. You might find that your btu gained will go up if you ditch the small hoses and make your inlet and exhaust the same size. The airflow through the unit will increase, improving the heat exchange efficiency inside the heater. Exhaust temperature may drop, but btus will go up, because less heat is being lost in the heater and pipe. Also at a lower temp higher flow situation, you will get less off gassing from plastic parts and paint etc. Sounds counterintuitive, I know, but the most efficient heaters run at lower temps for this reason.
You might consider elbow(s) on the inside intake to draw colder air from the floor.
Cool vid. Great idea ! Definitely going to try it out. We had a brutal winter here in Ontario this year and anything that helps get heating costs down is a bonus. Thanks a lot !!
Did it work?
I see what looks like a dryer vent on the side of the house. Couldn't that also be used to reclaim some dryer heat and preheat the box with an extra tube (providing piping to and from house stays sealed for non-toxic air).
Cool idea to use dryer vent. I am trying to heat water with my box and while I can get box temp 60 deg above ambient at winter solstice, I'm not getting enough heat transfer into the water through the small diameter vinyl tubing. I probably need a few hundred feet of tubing in the box, which would be costly. I'm going to try an air heater box instead
Morgan Brown you might try an old car radiator. Thin water passages and many heat transfer fines. Although you may not be able to drink that water. But for just hot water ???
Thanks very good idea. This is better than other web videos in which aluminum cans used, linked with silicone, porexpan, fiberglass insulation, etc. that can contaminate the air circulating at temperatures above 75 degrees. Only painting blak the aluminum tube.
You said "Blow". Where is the "blower"? Does it use convection, or is there a blower? Have you been able to actually use it? Approximately how much heat will this produce for your room? For that matter, how big of a room will this heat?
Nice.
Would love to know some ambient and exhaust temperatures to get an idea of how effective it is....
If you could find some room to put some cans of Crisco, spray painted black, inside this enclosure, they would absorb more heat, and because of the change-of-state phenomenon (see latent heat), They would begin to release this stored heat when the temperature dropped after the sun went down. Can’t be the kind of Crisco that is liquid at room temperature… Has to be the kind that congeals to a consistency like lard or butter at room temp, but melts at like, 90 deg F or so, because it is the change of phase from solid to liquid that stores or releases all the heat.
Nice project, I believe if the intake was at floor level it would circulate on its own, possibly not need a fan. I built one of soda cans and got an average twenty/twenty-five degree difference from intake and exhaust in winter just letting convection do it's job.
This guy is a genius. This product should be manufactured, marketed and distributed for supplement free heat.
I am thinking this would be great to heat a basement in the summer. Yes I said in the summer-our basement is 57 degrees in the summer-too chilly to sit down there and watch TV-hate to spend money to run a heater in the summer and while I like air conditioning- 57 is too cold. This would probably take the chill off and make the basement about the right temp.
please add the 2nd video in the description for easy access. If you had annotations I can't see them as I use click to flash to disable youtube ads.
I was wondering about using that shiny/reflective flex-tube without making it black. Traditionally, both powered and unpowered solar hot boxes use black materials inside of the box (not just a thin layer of black plastic backing). Ideally you want something in your box that has some good thermal mass to it, so it will absorb heat (you sould pack it with dark rocks). You also might want to spray paint the OUTSIDE (only) of your aluminum tube black (using something like rustolium - done OUTSIDE and then keep the tube in the open air for a few weeks to lose all volatile organics). It is best to use as little plastic as possible, especially in the the parts that that the air passes through. The use of the aluminum flex-pipe in the hot box is a good thing in that regard... but even less plastic would be better. Have you ever tasted water that was left in a plastic bottle in the sun? Plastics give off bad (dangerous to health) substances when they get hot - volatile organics (solvents , softeners, plasticizers) without which the plastic is a brittle fine powder... however all of these things that make the plastic have it shape and other qualities, are bad for living things.
If you don't mind the light being darkened from a window...why not mount the whole thing covering your window. It would be like a super dooper storm window. Cover the whole thing up with black curtains inside, and who would know you have a furnace of sorts there. The back curtains would add to the solar heat draw, into the home.
No one is saying you won't need supplemental heat, when the sun isn't out, but daylight hours....a big help.
It's quite ingenious idea, what if you painted the dryer hose black, it might absorb a little more heat, Thanks for sharing.
>>>if you painted the dryer hose black, it might absorb a little more heat, >>>
He did. Towards the end of the video.
Pipes are too long and not insulated. Why not put it directly under the window?
+Derpster2493 or on the roof
+Jason Logan Convection would not work with the unit at or above window level.
Because the plant is in the way?
Derpster
There appears to be a bush there...
Derpster why not try a real furnace and get real Heat
i cant imagine this thing working in cold weather - the air travels almost just as far in the pipes outside in the cold, as they do inside the "furnace" part.. your drawing warm air out of the house, cooling it, then heating it for few seconds, then cooling it again, and then finally letting it back in the house.. without a video of a thermometer monitoring the ambient temp in the house, and another showing warmer air coming out of that pipe - im calling bullshit on this one..
kctyphoon this work in Poland in snow weather. I have done one years and years ago.
@@oskar115 Cool, no pun intended. Show us a video clip of yours', I'd like to see it. Take care from Tn.
Doesnt show what is used for output and intake circulation.
No fan? Don't see how you'd get airflow. What temp. increase do you see on an average cloudy winter day in OR? I'm sceptical in the absence of data.
I totally agree with you. To get this thing to work even slightly you would want the amount of outside piping to be at it's absolute minimum. Having what looks like 4 - 5 feet of piping outside in the cold is going to take any heat generated back out of the air. Also, the lack of any type of mechanical circulation makes me suspect. I'm finding it hard to believe that this device will take in min of 65 F air that would then be subject to further cooling by the hose exposed to external cold and be able to heat it higher than 65 F on a 30 F day (the output would have to be higher than 65 F in order for any type of positive air flow with no mechanical circulation). Even if I accept that, I would think it would only work when the sun is shining directly on the device, so what's the process for not having cold air filter into the house when the device isn't producing heat. You have to lift your window and remove that 2x4 with all the rigid piping attached? Seems like you'd waste more heat doing that than you would gain. I'm not sold that this would really provide any benefit, seems like there's too many holes in the design.
If you paint everything (including the dryer duct) matte black efficiency will multiply. Also, recirculate one third of the air back into the heater.
you need to use "lead free" glass expensive but allows so much more of the uv rays to pass through instead of reflecting, heavy flat black "lead" paint (industrial use only) will conduct WAY more heat to your collector than any other paint.
Great simple ides, but just delete the silver, or any hose for that matter. It's counterproductive! Argon filled dual pane glass which is not IR coated, and a flat black or other high emissivity surface inside will be your best bet. Just use the empty cavity inside and insulate the rest of the exterior 😊
Also try prismatic plastic from office lighting, this would amplify the amount of sunlight onto the coils. Just a suggestion.
simple solar cells could drive a PC fan and push air when the sun is bright enough to charge the solar cells.
Solar heater! works fantastic during those cold summer months!
Why is the return air ducting so much smaller then the supply?
Cold air is denser. That's why a furnace with AC needs a bigger Motor!
benkojr if you did that to a furnace with A/C the a-coil would freeze up due to a lack of air flow. Here is the equation = 200 cfm in = 200 cfm out. Cold air is heavy and falls, hot air is light and rises. 200 cfm of cold air is still 200 cfm of air, hot or cold. The bigger motor is to lift the heavier cold air. You may be confused about condensed and compressed air. Make your intake bigger and put a damper on it to adjust the amount of air and/or the temperature of the air. Slower flow becomes hotter in the heat exchanger.
Think of this ti help remember. If you touch something hot and want to cool off your finger what's the shape of your mouth? And the opposite question, you've just filled four glasses with ice and your hands are cold so you blow in them. What shape is your mouth?
Your lungs are the same size in both. But the temperature is colder or hotter (relatively speaking)
(Technically that's an example of pressure. But since pressure and density are positively correlated (increase/decrease in the same direction ) it can still help us remember this.
Cold air uses less space ( more dense) then hot air (less dense or light) so the same amount if air going in the small tube warms up and needs space to be.
It can work with the same size the while way. Smaller would be better and larger. And if the tube is the same size there will be more pressure so the warmed air will blow out faster as compared to the small intake version.
The unit produces heat very well and is still in use. In response to a few of the comments that I've read, the dryer ducting is very effective. I put a small computer fan on the outlet and it is wired to a 12 volt solar cell (as recommended by one comment)... the unit, when there is direct sun on it, produces heat like a hair dryer. In addition, yes having a better intake would make the unit more efficient but it is operationally adequate the way it is and I'm super happy with it.
it produces that much heat in direct sun even in winter?
Joseph Catalano SOLAR collector….. Not ambient heat collector.
Yeah, I'm aware of the basics, just curious if the minimal insulative properties are adequate to counteract the winter ambient temperature
Joseph Catalano most of the time they are. It always confuses me why there isnt more of this going on.
HabaNero3 Because their is no profit from it. Only savings.
wouldn't cutting a hole in the house and then caulking it be more efficient? less piping and you could run everything through the same hole.
I rent. And although my landlords love me, they wouldn't want me to cut a hole in the house.
+Kent Tyler true, good point.
Would help if you mounted at an angle and insulated the heat exchanger box to retain your heat.
On a typically overcast winter day here in the UK, we would need a device the size of the house to heat the dogs kennel.
I'm just curious as to how well this set up works when the weather gets really cold as in the middle of January at night when the temp. goes below zero or in extended periods of single digit high temps.
It seems to me that a massive advantage of this design is that the black paint(s) used to help heat absorption are completely separated from the air flow. Most other designs have air flowing past painted surfaces and then being ducted into the house, with no regard being paid to what nasty chemicals the paints might give off when exposed to the sun over many years - chemicals that will be breathed in by the house's inhabitants. By keeping the airflow separate from the paint, this problem is completely eliminated.
the fan wastes energy, so take out the fan and put a same size return pipe. Cold/warm air convection is enough to circulate the air!
+Darryl Edington "any heat from the fan motor is added to the desired result" REALLY??? because out of 100% energy used by fan motor maybe 5% is converted to heat. A fan converts electrostatic potential energy to kinetic energy and not heat!!!
+Persian5word kinetic energy is converted to heat eventually too. No energy is loss when you want heat.
The only better way to get heat from electricity (than 100%) is with a thermal pump (air conditioner) and those get around 300% efficiency.
Ask any mechanical engineer...
PERSON 5 WORKING, WHICH
You could use that glass/ mirror thing.. Looking glass on one side and mirror on the other side, so all the light and heat that goes into the box stays into the box..
I liked the idea of using the dryer vent pipe. You may not know it but you have a big air leak between the windows where they normally seal in the middle. I would think you would need to increase the size of the intake pipe to be the same size as the bigger exhaust pipe to get better air flow, the 2 little pipes are not going to let much air pass through them. Also the pipe coming from the collector needs to be insulated so you don't loose the heat collected.
The pipe, being black acts as part of the heating system itself. As it's plastic, it wont lose heat too quickly.
This makes SOOO much more sense than gluing a bunch of coke cans together. THANX!
why? I would think aluminum cans hold heat.
You could make this more efficient by:
1. Adding a small DC fan inside the pipe to move the air. Fan could be solar powered.
2. Have the air intake for your dryer tubing outside of the box, not inside. That way you can seal the box and allow the air inside it to get warm, increasing efficiency by enveloping the entire pipe in heated air.
tedtw Oops! I didn't read the comment below.
I like your Project, I have built a unit myself, using pop cans. I have added mirrors to boost the capacity. Next unit will be at least doublé the size and probably consist of flexible alu ducts.
Thanks for sharing, regards from Mexico City
Does it really get cold in Mexico City? I'm now wondering if this will work in Chicago and considering the sub-zero weather we've been having here, it's been a cold winter.
daschundloverable Hi: I'm in Idaho, near Boise... I've used something similar to heat here. I have a south facing window and made mine inside the window sill. I get 140*F on a 10*F but sunny day. As long as you have sun, you'll have heat no matter how cold it is outside. No sun, no heat.
2JobsStillPoorUSA Oh, thank you!!!! About how much sf would you say it can heat? Are you using this the same one or something similar? I am very disabled and found one that uses only pop cans and that thick styrofoam? insulation, which would make it very easy to put in place in the only window I have on the south side. I've looked at so many of these, I can't remember which one this one is. There are some really good ideas out there!!! Did you know the EPA is outlawing wood stoves?
daschundloverable My house is 1325 sq feet. The main area the heater heats is the living room, dining and kitchen. At night, after the sun goes down I block off the vents because the heater does act as a heat sink, cooling air. In my case it works best from about 11:30am to about 3pm during the day. Although I think it would work best with some sort of solar fan situation, for me it is more of a supplement to the furnace. It would certainly heat a 24x24 foot room to a comfortable level. Mine is 1.5" styrofoam sheathing with a piece of metal siding centered front to back so the heated air can travel up both sides.The sheathin is protected by some self adhesive aluminum backed insulation. I just wedged mine in the window sill. (my windows are single pane, aluminum ones.) I would not use my method on vinyl windows. One note... it did get hot enough to MELT the styrofoam. Next one will be wood, with furnace vents to open and close.
How do the soda cans work? I mean, I've seen the units but haven't really seen where any of those 'styles' of solar energy are actually efficient.