hi folks just an update for the heater, its saving my about 900 a year in fuel cost, today i order propane at 2.99 a gallon wow,, when i started this project it was 2.32 a couple of years ago,, i use about 350 gallons a year vs, 500-600 before i install this system , i now am enjoying the savings, and it took two years to recoup my investment,, and it has withstand all the weather conditions, wind and heavy snow,,,
Great job. One super cheap and easy mod would be to run the outlet to a rock bed. In the rock bed you put a coil of tubing that precedes your hot water heater. This will accomplish some thermal storage as well as water pre-heating. Keep up the awesome work!
hi everyone, yes the back of the heater is insulated,, and its still working great going on year 6 the wind has not been a problem has not moved,, i do have a a bit of repair on the back side come spring,, but nothing big,, just have to tack a few things back into place,, but so far its still giving heat on a nice sunny day and it can be 10 degrees out its still working great,
Excellent idea and well executed. I like how you learned from your mistakes and passed them on so that others won't make them. Thanks for sharing and Major Koodos on doing this project yourself...
Great to see this unit. A couple of observations, 1 ) would it be a thought to look at the return, heated air duct to the house, could you straighton this so you are not tring to drive hot air down hill, If you look at the layout on early un pumped car coolent systems, convection works a lot better if its just up hill, would save some motor/ fan load. 2 ) Front cover only single layer, so you loose energy back out the system 3) Add a refector on the ground infront of it, white painted board .
Wow that is the greatest! ! ! I am impressed. I like the way you insulated the outside duct work. insulated flex inside sheet metal. I have one suggestion that you could add at any time for low cost. cover the outside of the corrogated plastic with window film. this would achieve two ways of saving heat. ONE: there would be two layers of plastic film providing an air space to help retain heat. TWO: the flat plastic film would greatly reduce your surface loss area on the corrogated plastic.
awesome project. thanks for posting. Also, I like the baffle idea, slowing the flow of air down and allowing it to heat up more before it goes back in the house. Great job
google 'snap disk fan controller'... the one i got is adjustable... manufacturer is white and rodgers part number 3f05-1... it's smaller than an egg, and you can wire it into the fan, so it starts automatically, not on a timer... so set it to say, 130F, it will automatically start the fan when the air inside gets to that temp... and the best part, they're about 9 bucks! i built a small SF using dog food cans, and an old computer fan to heat a greenhouse...
In my experiments I built a small box and the regular paint was better I used Krylon and gave it two days to dry it has to cure before it will not give off the smell and in the box it got up to 156 it stopped smelling after 3 days of this krykon is actually aflutter black just for your info . Another idea I had success with is running the air on the underside of the metal catch plate then run it over the top then to the out put you get two passes and radically higher temps.
wow folks a lot of comments,, i will try to answer some of the questions,, yes the back and pipe is insulated, i did this when i build it and its states that on the video,, now 2014 its still going strong, yes clear roofing material did fog but it still gives off a great amount of heat,, the btu, is about 33000 btu,, yes it only works when the sun shines :) and no i didnt need a permit,, there was nothing in writing about solar heater lol ,, a few repairs have to take place, one panel in the back a woodpecker got at it,, i plan to take care of that in a week or so,, but most of the seals have held up very well, considering this is mostly a maintenance free unit,, the same fan ,, other then the fan there is no moving parts,, and if i need to replace it is 30 bucks,, so my heating bills were a bit higher last year, it was a super cold winter for us,,,, it was about 200 more to heat the house not bad,, yes it heats the house during the day .. often times if its not super cold out 20 and lower out,, my furnace will not kick on till about 11pm to 1 am till morning,, so yes this unit is not to heat all day long ,, its has saved me money from purchasing gas for my home,, so since 2008 my heating bill remain very much the same every year,, ok folks ,,
i made a box like that and put copper tubing all through then put it on top of the gazebo roof connected it to the outlet of the pool pump and free heated pool,,you get another maybe 6 weeks to use it...very careful to blow it out for winter
This is great. The only difference I would make (if I were building such a device, which unfortunately I'm not currently!) would be to use water as a heat tranfer medium. Water is a great heat - storing "battery" and thus could heat the house well into much of the night (unlike air). But if one wanted to avoid glycol, you would have to insulate the water very well . . . Using water would be no different than any radiator system . . . Thanks for the video - very inspiring!
@junkyardnut It makes a difference, believe me. when the air is moving inside the cans, it don't make any contact with the "window" of the collector, and the heat loss is reduced. The air between the cans and the lexan works as a good insulator, and the efficiency is better. It's good to make a can heater if you don't have enough room for placing this one, because the cans will work better and give you almost equal heat for every position of the sun during the day because of their shape.
Very nice! I remember seeing a design almost identical to this years back in a Mother Earth News magazine. Although that was was built into a shop wall. I commend you on all your effort and I hope it's been all you wanted it to be in helping you with high heat bills. Keep up the good work and great videos.
I use a power roof vent thermostat to run the fans on my wood stove. It is adjustable and available at the hardware store for under 30 bucks, usually. I use to run timers but got tired of messing with them.
@bustherh you have to keep the snow off of it, read above about the 24 inches of snow, they work as long as the sun is out,, not as hot as fall and spring but i use it all the time when the sun is out ,
You COULD run a water pre-heater loop in the box for Summer use. Keep in mind that you'll get either good hot air or good hot water but not both; so a "drain back" system to get hot water from the panel only during the Summer makes sense. After all, during the Summer it's going to sit there unused because you don't need hot air. If you preheat your water this way, you will save a good bit of energy.
if you whan more heat just use mirrors to reflect the sun in your device also you can adjust those mirrors to get the same amount of heat all year even if the sun position changes
123x i used a 6 inch duct fan, 240 cfm i did use a larger fan in the house but i think it didnt make a different, there is a steady flow of heat from the 6 inch fan does not cool it down to fast, and from the vent its about 127 to 130 of heat all day,
@carverswoodshop You can add some reflector on the bottom of your solar collector to boost performance. by gluing aluminium foil on the plywood board and laid flat on the bottom for the sunlight to bounce up i
the roof on my out building is the same material, I built it about the same time you did this. Its nice and bright in there all day, a little cold in the winter without a wood stove. It is always about 10-20 degrees warmer inside during daylight in the winter as well.
Great piece of work. One thought I had ....it may be of value to double glaze the upper sections, ie the area that gets hottest, but also the area that will be radiating heat back into the atmosphere, reducing that will maximise temperature. It may also be of value to build a passive solar store....ie a lump of mass, be it dense brick, or a lump of water, a ton which would aid longevity, ie after sunset, but some control gear would be required, be it hand operated flaps or somthing more hi tech.
i made smaller solar heater for the windows, and used wood and paint and never had problem i used just flat black panit, but NEVER use the high heat black paint, it will not cure unless it hits a high temp , like a woodstove is ok, it will cure,
@roaddog453 well thank you,, I live in pa, about 30 mins east of lancaster pa, it heating about 800 of a 1000 sf home, my house is small but i heat it up in the morning to temp and then turn it off around 8am and let the heater take care of it ( if its sunny till i later in the day) its about 62-64 around 6-7pm at night depending on how cold it is outside, not sure of the angle, i just know that there are no shadows in the box when the sun hits it in the winter, i guess its right lol
thanks shane, it works well and so glad i made it, there is always room for improvement , and 58 yes email me that is fine , trail i made a small one with mirrors and your right its to big to do that with this,
It would be interesting to know how much heat you're losing from the back side through the wood. You might pick up some efficiency by spray foaming that back side. Not criticizing, just wondering because if that's true, you could design one to do the same job but a little smaller. Thank you for making the video and sharing it with us!
hi everyone,, thanks for all the kind words, just wanted you to know i did an update on my solar heater, working much better with a heavier fan,, its super,, ck out the video click on the link above,, take care, arleen
@Martaan66 thank you,, i got it at lowes it cost about 20 bucks a sheet of 8 x 2 feet its used for roofing, you will find it in the roofing section of the store
that's a great design you got there, simple and effective. i love it when ppl find ways of useing natural renewable ways to reduce the almighty electric bill. keep it up and keep videoing.
we had an east coast snowstorm, and the only thing i had to do was remove the snow off the bottom of the heater, one advantage is that the heater in not on a roof , so it normally doest have snow on it, we had 14 inches and only had the clean off about 4 inches but its coming out at 115-120 today, and the house is 69 how nice,,:)
Thanks for the great info. I've thought about doing something like this, or using water under one or between two sheets of glass ontop of our metal roof. It's all just about getting as high of a percentage of the solar heat per area as possible, moving it to where you want, and dispersing it. Air isn't the most energy dense, but it keeps it easy and you don't have to worry about it freezing. Nice setup!
@kricotas i did over 20 videos when i was building it and lost all of it when my laptop died , i was so disappointed , nothing i could to to recover it,, so the answer is no, that was also all the photos of the process
Good work.!!! Little suggestion. You probably can get even more out of your design if you insulate the cold air vent. This way the air that is coming out of the house is sending already warmed heat. This should increase your efficiency by nearly 22%. Hope this helps and once again... GREAT JOB!!!!!
@redsquirrelftw it does great but of course you will need another source of heat,, today it was a high of only 27 it was 68 in my home for most of the day with the sun,, but as the sun lowers it has to be heated,, i have propane furnace, and baseboard heat in the home,, i added the propane furnace when i bought the house,, base board heat was the only source of heat
Great job on this build, it's been a big learning curve i imagine. I think this could be improved if you had used aluminium downspouts in the box with a manifold each end, also because the box is so big I would run my hot water in it also.
Awesome system, did you ever imagine replacing your whole roof with a system such as this? I wonder what the energy savings would be if every house had their south facing roofs turned into air and water heaters?
Really nice!! What about an elbow in the cold inlet To help force the cold air through the box? So the air wouldn't hit the panel that way you can improve the flow!! Just a though! You did a very nice job and this thing it's huge!! Congratulations!
Wow simple buld ..and the most clever designs so far, instead of bulding a small one with sodacans I can buy stuff and buld me a bigger sized one. In collecting solar energy size matters. more surface to heat up is more air to blow trough it I don't know if I can improve it, but i can share some ideas waterpipes concetrated on the top tunnel of the collector, where the collector is at his warmest insulation added outside at the back panel smallest on the bottom biggest top
I agree you should have built it on the roof. and You can greatly improve efficiency if you insulate your ductwork. Also.. I don't know what your electricity costs are, but solar water heating is an easy way to remove the cost of operating an electric water heater.
love it good job....i added a 20 dallar home thermostat to mine...and a solar pannel...to a really good computer fan.....must say yours is bigger then mine lol.....good job.....
Great Job on this working project! Have you gotten your first solar bill yet ;-) I'm just waiting for the day big business tries to "purchase" the sun and begin charging for use! Ha, ha!
I have been dealing with paint curing issues on my Rocket stove Fireplace and found that the High Heat Paint doesn't cure until you reach 475 degrees. on the smell of the wood, I have seen on other videos of similar collectors (done on a smaller scale) that they put duct work tape over the wood to separate it from the heat chamber. They didn't state weither this eliminated odors or not. I'm planning on building one of these soon, but considering water because you can store the heat in a tank.
if you wanted to store some of the generated heat you could run black pool heater pipe (lots of it in a closed sealed system) to capture the heat in water then pipe it to a thermal mass...say concrete or stone or more water (55gl drums)...something like that...the thermal mass will radiate out heat after the forced air is too cold and gets turned off...just a thought....
I think it awesome you would take on a task such as this.And it appears you did a wonderful job. I am wondering one thing it seems you have a long way to the house. Was there a reason as to why you installed the panels so far from the house ? I mean most people seem to put it as close as possable.
You're getting almost 200 BTU per square foot of collector on a good day, so that is about 60% of the theoretical maximum, which is pretty good. Well done.
If you reflected the sunlight onto the box with a well placed mirrors or aluminum foil glued to boards I believe you could increase your heat quite a bit.
This is exactly what I always had in mind. That trasnparent corruglated plastic film is very economical to scale up. I want to suggest that you can add some reflecting materials at the base to bounce up more sunlight into it. You can glue aluminium foil on plywood or OSB boards . I dont understand why some people use beer cans inside it.. I dont see the logic in it.. make no difference with cans !
thanks rob, i couldnt put this big system on my wall, my house is a bi-level home, and on a hill, , i would have if i could, but the size of it made sense to make it separate from the house,
@numberourdays I am just taking a shot at this answer but it seems to me that if she said it was roofing material it would handle the heat pretty efficiently.
up date, we had a huge 24 inches of snow, i had to go down and clear off the bottom of the heater yesterday today its was sunny it got up to 28 outside,,, my house was 71 when i walk in at 230pm so you will have to keep if free of snow, it will cool it off if you dont, plus it was coming out of the vent inside the house at 115 most of the day,,,
@lurmot relax.. no need to worry about storage... just let the sun do the work until it sets .. If the weather is foul, so what?? Use the traditonal way . If enough of us do that, then traditional energy prices will plummet enough to make storage unnecesary. I just dont understand why some people are fretting about storing solar energy.. I think that we should be focused on generating as much solar energy as possible first then worry about storing it much later after additional research
If you're looking for a way you can store heat for cloudy weather or maybe even a day or so later, then use WATER or ideally a water/antifreeze mixture. Water holds more BTU's heat value than almost any other material. Hot air warms up the fluid in a radiator [heat-exchanger]. This very warm or hot water is then stored in large under 100 gallon or maybe even multi-hundred gallon insulated tank{s}. All you need for hydronic baseboard or in-floor heating is 90 degrees Fahrenheit fluid temp.
Run a dark garden hose back and forth snaking through this . YOu could get at least a hot water tanks worth (more likely 3 if you snake the hose back and forth) and then drain it into your hot water tank. You will decrease the work of your hot water tank by 70 percent (it will only have to push the water temp up a little instead of from cold water. I run a system on the roof like this on the cabin. Hot showers and heat absolutely free for our cabin also water will retain heat in your hot air
ribbed reflects more sun, so no. and you can dimple your glass so it does not bounce light back (reflect) through etching. Search ebay, etc for 'solar' glass and you will find the new glass upgrades that advertise the discovered benefit of pebbling the surface to diffuse the light better. A way to see this effect is to "soap" a window and observe how it effects its ("brightness") overall light transmission. Good luck. PS- I am collecting old patio doors for mine also!!
A modification I would make to this would be to add a second layer of sheeting over the front of it to effectively double glaze it and reduce heat loss.
@SkunkTreeCarvings the best way to store is to heat your home as much as possible till the sun set .. then watch the temp sink over the night. then start all ove ragain.. dont work yourself to death trying to store the heat.. This iswhat really drags our altenrate energy movement.. people are mistaken for thinking that we must elminate traditoinal fuels outright which is unrealistic.. Just cut down demand as much as possible first then worry about storage much later.
Excellent! I love it.Where do you live?Some insulation to your ducting maybe handy to give you even more efficiency.Depends where do you live so during summer you may use the high heat BTU for regeneration of desiccant dehumidifier...I just love it..
great job. I think if I was going to make one that big i would take in to consideration the air likes to "Flow Smoothly" in the path of least resistance. I think I would make smooth curved corners everywhere I could and have the exit hole be more like a funnel and on the end not the back. Still who am I... I just found out about these like 30 min ago and like totally want to build my own test one to try and heat my garage in the winter. I see others use solar powered fans to, thats bad ass
Looking through the comments I see where people have asked what material you used for the clear covering but didn't see an answer. It looks like corrugated roofing but looks clear. What is it and where did you get it?
When you use metal in place of wood, paint it black to help with the heat. Also, you might think about painting your duct work a flat black to help with heat. Question, is your angle correct to get the max sun?
I’m curious to know if your neighbors have positive opinions on your solar furnace, since you seem to live in a suburban setting. Usually alternative energy sources bring out the N.I.M.B.Y. (Not In My Back Yard) opinions from its denizens. I happen to think you did a stand up job and that it is very much aesthetically pleasing but then again I would love to see these in every back yard.
i didnt use any paint, the first time i used rustolum high heat it not good to use stinks and has to cure, which the temps in the box never got over 275 for it to cure so , i put in flat roofing tin black color, cause the paint is bake on and has no odor to it,
@willjan1128 my bills remain about the same, you have to factor that gas went way up about 30 percent or more over the past three years, i est i saved about 6 -800 a year, and the unit cost me about 2000, with some mistakes, the unit should have been around 1400 only, so you can recoup in about 2-3 years, it all depend how much sun is out etc,,,
ok just for answer a few question,, i would not use any black paint, only the metal that already had the black paint on it, i got mine from a roofing supply store, the paint is bake on the metal, and the heat is not store, once the sun comes up a fan kicks on and the heat in the box is forced into the house,, the fan is slow,, so it on the a timer and turn off a few hours later,, when no sun i unplug it for that day,, i can put a senor on it but i have not done this yet,, ok thank, arleen
@IronHorsez88 thanks for the comment,, the wind has not been a problem i have it anchored very well,, we had 60 mph winds and not a problem still standing,, and yes the pipe leading to the and from the heater to the house is insulated, and also behind the panels,, and sides,,
I guess you would like it to be moveable a bit with the sun changing position, there is a bit of a solution, and you probably know this and maby some people dont, and that is to use an adjustable mirror to reflect light onto your air heater. And with your large heater, it guess it would be hard to find alot of mirrors and stuff, but maby even a few square yards of mirror is possible to add a few extra thousand watts into the air.
Thanks for the Idea.. Questions? have you tried to use smaller air channels? so that the air would be forced to go back and forth more times? before being pushed back to the house? have you tried to angle the the air channels a little? so that the low end is cold and the higher end would be for the hot? have you tried adding any thermal mass to the black backing? and the insulate the thermal mass? and you mentioned adding water pipes for collect hot water.. FANTASTIC BUILD!! Thank You!!
![DIY Solar Air Heater | Step-by-Step Building Guide [Part 1]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/VhhJt-ZzRwI/mqdefault.jpg)
hi folks just an update for the heater, its saving my about 900 a year in fuel cost, today i order propane at 2.99 a gallon wow,, when i started this project it was 2.32 a couple of years ago,, i use about 350 gallons a year vs, 500-600 before i install this system , i now am enjoying the savings, and it took two years to recoup my investment,, and it has withstand all the weather conditions, wind and heavy snow,,,
Great job. One super cheap and easy mod would be to run the outlet to a rock bed. In the rock bed you put a coil of tubing that precedes your hot water heater. This will accomplish some thermal storage as well as water pre-heating. Keep up the awesome work!
hi everyone, yes the back of the heater is insulated,, and its still working great going on year 6 the wind has not been a problem has not moved,, i do have a a bit of repair on the back side come spring,, but nothing big,, just have to tack a few things back into place,, but so far its still giving heat on a nice sunny day and it can be 10 degrees out its still working great,
Excellent idea and well executed. I like how you learned from your mistakes and passed them on so that others won't make them. Thanks for sharing and Major Koodos on doing this project yourself...
Great to see this unit. A couple of observations, 1 ) would it be a thought to look at the return, heated air duct to the house, could you straighton this so you are not tring to drive hot air down hill, If you look at the layout on early un pumped car coolent systems, convection works a lot better if its just up hill, would save some motor/ fan load. 2 ) Front cover only single layer, so you loose energy back out the system 3) Add a refector on the ground infront of it, white painted board .
Wow that is the greatest! ! ! I am impressed. I like the way you insulated the outside duct work. insulated flex inside sheet metal.
I have one suggestion that you could add at any time for low cost. cover the outside of the corrogated plastic with window film. this would achieve two ways of saving heat. ONE: there would be two layers of plastic film providing an air space to help retain heat.
TWO: the flat plastic film would greatly reduce your surface loss area on the corrogated plastic.
awesome project. thanks for posting. Also, I like the baffle idea, slowing the flow of air down and allowing it to heat up more before it goes back in the house. Great job
google 'snap disk fan controller'... the one i got is adjustable... manufacturer is white and rodgers part number 3f05-1... it's smaller than an egg, and you can wire it into the fan, so it starts automatically, not on a timer... so set it to say, 130F, it will automatically start the fan when the air inside gets to that temp... and the best part, they're about 9 bucks! i built a small SF using dog food cans, and an old computer fan to heat a greenhouse...
In my experiments I built a small box and the regular paint was better I used Krylon and gave it two days to dry it has to cure before it will not give off the smell and in the box it got up to 156 it stopped smelling after 3 days of this krykon is actually aflutter black just for your info . Another idea I had success with is running the air on the underside of the metal catch plate then run it over the top then to the out put you get two passes and radically higher temps.
Excellent video. Thank you for posting. I love seeing everyday people DOING something about energy costs rather than sitting back & complaining.
wow folks a lot of comments,, i will try to answer some of the questions,, yes the back and pipe is insulated, i did this when i build it and its states that on the video,, now 2014 its still going strong, yes clear roofing material did fog but it still gives off a great amount of heat,, the btu, is about 33000 btu,, yes it only works when the sun shines :) and no i didnt need a permit,, there was nothing in writing about solar heater lol ,, a few repairs have to take place, one panel in the back a woodpecker got at it,, i plan to take care of that in a week or so,, but most of the seals have held up very well, considering this is mostly a maintenance free unit,, the same fan ,, other then the fan there is no moving parts,, and if i need to replace it is 30 bucks,, so my heating bills were a bit higher last year, it was a super cold winter for us,,,, it was about 200 more to heat the house not bad,, yes it heats the house during the day .. often times if its not super cold out 20 and lower out,, my furnace will not kick on till about 11pm to 1 am till morning,, so yes this unit is not to heat all day long ,, its has saved me money from purchasing gas for my home,, so since 2008 my heating bill remain very much the same every year,, ok folks ,,
And it looks terrific taking up 192 square feet in your back yard. Neighbors must be jealous.
i made a box like that and put copper tubing all through then put it on top of the gazebo roof connected it to the outlet of the pool pump and free heated pool,,you get another maybe 6 weeks to use it...very careful to blow it out for winter
I saw this vid 3yr ago, and it's still my favorite. I've built 2 (sm.&med.) and am about to start the large one.
This is great. The only difference I would make (if I were building such a device, which unfortunately I'm not currently!) would be to use water as a heat tranfer medium. Water is a great heat - storing "battery" and thus could heat the house well into much of the night (unlike air). But if one wanted to avoid glycol, you would have to insulate the water very well . . . Using water would be no different than any radiator system . . . Thanks for the video - very inspiring!
@junkyardnut
It makes a difference, believe me. when the air is moving inside the cans, it don't make any contact with the "window" of the collector, and the heat loss is reduced. The air between the cans and the lexan works as a good insulator, and the efficiency is better.
It's good to make a can heater if you don't have enough room for placing this one, because the cans will work better and give you almost equal heat for every position of the sun during the day because of their shape.
Very nice! I remember seeing a design almost identical to this years back in a Mother Earth News magazine. Although that was was built into a shop wall. I commend you on all your effort and I hope it's been all you wanted it to be in helping you with high heat bills. Keep up the good work and great videos.
I use a power roof vent thermostat to run the fans on my wood stove. It is adjustable and available at the hardware store for under 30 bucks, usually. I use to run timers but got tired of messing with them.
@bustherh you have to keep the snow off of it, read above about the 24 inches of snow, they work as long as the sun is out,, not as hot as fall and spring but i use it all the time when the sun is out ,
You COULD run a water pre-heater loop in the box for Summer use.
Keep in mind that you'll get either good hot air or good hot water but not both; so a "drain back" system to get hot water from the panel only during the Summer makes sense.
After all, during the Summer it's going to sit there unused because you don't need hot air. If you preheat your water this way, you will save a good bit of energy.
i did use it first but then went to a roofing company and got flat piece of tin in black bake on the tin not just painted, it works good
if you whan more heat just use mirrors to reflect the sun in your device also you can adjust those mirrors to get the same amount of heat all year even if the sun position changes
remember pulling air is more efficiant then pushing it! just a friendly tip!
123x i used a 6 inch duct fan, 240 cfm i did use a larger fan in the house but i think it didnt make a different, there is a steady flow of heat from the 6 inch fan does not cool it down to fast, and from the vent its about 127 to 130 of heat all day,
@carverswoodshop You can add some reflector on the bottom of your solar collector to boost performance. by gluing aluminium foil on the plywood board and laid flat on the bottom for the sunlight to bounce up i
the roof on my out building is the same material, I built it about the same time you did this. Its nice and bright in there all day, a little cold in the winter without a wood stove. It is always about 10-20 degrees warmer inside during daylight in the winter as well.
Great piece of work. One thought I had ....it may be of value to double glaze the upper sections, ie the area that gets hottest, but also the area that will be radiating heat back into the atmosphere, reducing that will maximise temperature. It may also be of value to build a passive solar store....ie a lump of mass, be it dense brick, or a lump of water, a ton which would aid longevity, ie after sunset, but some control gear would be required, be it hand operated flaps or somthing more hi tech.
i made smaller solar heater for the windows, and used wood and paint and never had problem i used just flat black panit, but NEVER use the high heat black paint, it will not cure unless it hits a high temp , like a woodstove is ok, it will cure,
@roaddog453
well thank you,, I live in pa, about 30 mins east of lancaster pa, it heating about 800 of a 1000 sf home, my house is small but i heat it up in the morning to temp and then turn it off around 8am and let the heater take care of it ( if its sunny till i later in the day) its about 62-64 around 6-7pm at night depending on how cold it is outside, not sure of the angle, i just know that there are no shadows in the box when the sun hits it in the winter, i guess its right lol
thanks shane, it works well and so glad i made it, there is always room for improvement , and 58 yes email me that is fine , trail i made a small one with mirrors and your right its to big to do that with this,
@lurmot i did look into it,, storing the heat,, but mold issues were a problem, its works just fine for those nice sunny days,,
It would be interesting to know how much heat you're losing from the back side through the wood. You might pick up some efficiency by spray foaming that back side. Not criticizing, just wondering because if that's true, you could design one to do the same job but a little smaller. Thank you for making the video and sharing it with us!
I you ran a pipe from inlet to outlet and sealed it,you would still absorb the heat without the smell,basically your box would be a heat exchanger.
hi everyone,, thanks for all the kind words, just wanted you to know i did an update on my solar heater, working much better with a heavier fan,, its super,, ck out the video click on the link above,, take care, arleen
@Martaan66 thank you,, i got it at lowes it cost about 20 bucks a sheet of 8 x 2 feet its used for roofing, you will find it in the roofing section of the store
@EdmundSquid thanks, yes i think it would help,, i tried it on a smaller one and worked great but as the sun move so the mirrors had to also
that's a great design you got there, simple and effective. i love it when ppl find ways of useing natural renewable ways to reduce the almighty electric bill. keep it up and keep videoing.
we had an east coast snowstorm, and the only thing i had to do was remove the snow off the bottom of the heater, one advantage is that the heater in not on a roof , so it normally doest have snow on it, we had 14 inches and only had the clean off about 4 inches but its coming out at 115-120 today, and the house is 69 how nice,,:)
Thanks for the great info. I've thought about doing something like this, or using water under one or between two sheets of glass ontop of our metal roof. It's all just about getting as high of a percentage of the solar heat per area as possible, moving it to where you want, and dispersing it. Air isn't the most energy dense, but it keeps it easy and you don't have to worry about it freezing. Nice setup!
@kricotas i did over 20 videos when i was building it and lost all of it when my laptop died , i was so disappointed , nothing i could to to recover it,, so the answer is no, that was also all the photos of the process
Excellent work! I admire your effort, strength and persistence. One tough lady! :)
Good work.!!! Little suggestion. You probably can get even more out of your design if you insulate the cold air vent. This way the air that is coming out of the house is sending already warmed heat. This should increase your efficiency by nearly 22%. Hope this helps and once again... GREAT JOB!!!!!
@redsquirrelftw it does great but of course you will need another source of heat,, today it was a high of only 27 it was 68 in my home for most of the day with the sun,, but as the sun lowers it has to be heated,, i have propane furnace, and baseboard heat in the home,, i added the propane furnace when i bought the house,, base board heat was the only source of heat
Great job on this build, it's been a big learning curve i imagine. I think this could be improved if you had used aluminium downspouts in the box with a manifold each end, also because the box is so big I would run my hot water in it also.
@goose79335 the box is insulated and the pipe to the house are also ,,
Awesome system, did you ever imagine replacing your whole roof with a system such as this? I wonder what the energy savings would be if every house had their south facing roofs turned into air and water heaters?
Great job. Would black roofing felt work better than paint ??
you have a magnificent mind, thank you for the information!
i am going to try this technique too.
Really nice!! What about an elbow in the cold inlet To help force the cold air through the box? So the air wouldn't hit the panel that way you can improve the flow!! Just a though! You did a very nice job and this thing it's huge!! Congratulations!
@jkt626 i dont know about beer cans,, sorry there is alot on the internet about using cans , good luck
Good for you! Glad to see your interest in free heat,I made a similar one for my garage in Pa. Best wishes on your projects.
Wow simple buld ..and the most clever designs so far, instead of bulding a small one with sodacans I can buy stuff and buld me a bigger sized one. In collecting solar energy size matters.
more surface to heat up is more air to blow trough it
I don't know if I can improve it, but i can share some ideas waterpipes concetrated on the top tunnel of the collector, where the collector is at his warmest
insulation added outside at the back panel smallest on the bottom biggest top
I agree you should have built it on the roof. and You can greatly improve efficiency if you insulate your ductwork. Also.. I don't know what your electricity costs are, but solar water heating is an easy way to remove the cost of operating an electric water heater.
great build .. i notice your channels are perpendicular to the flow of air.
Ha! you definitely mad woman .... we need more like you
love it good job....i added a 20 dallar home thermostat to mine...and a solar pannel...to a really good computer fan.....must say yours is bigger then mine lol.....good job.....
Great Job on this working project! Have you gotten your first solar bill yet ;-) I'm just waiting for the day big business tries to "purchase" the sun and begin charging for use! Ha, ha!
I have been dealing with paint curing issues on my Rocket stove Fireplace and found that the High Heat Paint doesn't cure until you reach 475 degrees. on the smell of the wood, I have seen on other videos of similar collectors (done on a smaller scale) that they put duct work tape over the wood to separate it from the heat chamber. They didn't state weither this eliminated odors or not. I'm planning on building one of these soon, but considering water because you can store the heat in a tank.
Really cool!
If I didn't rent I could use this, but home owner will not allow :)
if you wanted to store some of the generated heat you could run black pool heater pipe (lots of it in a closed sealed system) to capture the heat in water then pipe it to a thermal mass...say concrete or stone or more water (55gl drums)...something like that...the thermal mass will radiate out heat after the forced air is too cold and gets turned off...just a thought....
just an update the house was at 72 degrees at 130 pm jan 14 , outside temps 42
on jan 10 out temp was 28 high, and 64 inside, so i happy with it
@Martaan66 thank you,, i got it at lowes it cost about 20 bucks a sheet of 8 x 2 feet
I think it awesome you would take on a task such as this.And it appears you did a wonderful job. I am wondering one thing it seems you have a long way to the house. Was there a reason as to why you installed the panels so far from the house ? I mean most people seem to put it as close as possable.
You're getting almost 200 BTU per square foot of collector on a good day, so that is about 60% of the theoretical maximum, which is pretty good. Well done.
If you reflected the sunlight onto the box with a well placed mirrors or aluminum foil glued to boards I believe you could increase your heat quite a bit.
painting aluminum requires self-etching primer (available in aerosol at auto paint stores) and then a top coat. good job.
This is exactly what I always had in mind. That trasnparent corruglated plastic film is very economical to scale up. I want to suggest that you can add some reflecting materials at the base to bounce up more sunlight into it. You can glue aluminium foil on plywood or OSB boards . I dont understand why some people use beer cans inside it.. I dont see the logic in it.. make no difference with cans !
that is a great project i think you could make it dual purpose if you used it as a awaning for a car or a back porch. 5 stars
thanks rob, i couldnt put this big system on my wall, my house is a bi-level home, and on a hill, , i would have if i could, but the size of it made sense to make it separate from the house,
@numberourdays I am just taking a shot at this answer but it seems to me that if she said it was roofing material it would handle the heat pretty efficiently.
Great video! What an awesome concept.
@junkyardnut yes there is a lot you can do to improve,, there is always room for improvement
up date, we had a huge 24 inches of snow, i had to go down and clear off the bottom of the heater yesterday today its was sunny it got up to 28 outside,,, my house was 71 when i walk in at 230pm so you will have to keep if free of snow, it will cool it off if you dont, plus it was coming out of the vent inside the house at 115 most of the day,,,
great job it looks pretty neat to me .I hope you get many years of use out of it.
@lurmot relax.. no need to worry about storage... just let the sun do the work until it sets .. If the weather is foul, so what?? Use the traditonal way . If enough of us do that, then traditional energy prices will plummet enough to make storage unnecesary. I just dont understand why some people are fretting about storing solar energy.. I think that we should be focused on generating as much solar energy as possible first then worry about storing it much later after additional research
If you're looking for a way you can store heat for cloudy weather or maybe even a day or so later, then use WATER or ideally a water/antifreeze mixture. Water holds more BTU's heat value than almost any other material. Hot air warms up the fluid in a radiator [heat-exchanger]. This very warm or hot water is then stored in large under 100 gallon or maybe even multi-hundred gallon insulated tank{s}. All you need for hydronic baseboard or in-floor heating is 90 degrees Fahrenheit fluid temp.
Run a dark garden hose back and forth snaking through this . YOu could get at least a hot water tanks worth (more likely 3 if you snake the hose back and forth) and then drain it into your hot water tank. You will decrease the work of your hot water tank by 70 percent (it will only have to push the water temp up a little instead of from cold water. I run a system on the roof like this on the cabin. Hot showers and heat absolutely free for our cabin also water will retain heat in your hot air
ribbed reflects more sun, so no. and you can dimple your glass so it does not bounce light back (reflect) through etching. Search ebay, etc for 'solar' glass and you will find the new glass upgrades that advertise the discovered benefit of pebbling the surface to diffuse the light better. A way to see this effect is to "soap" a window and observe how it effects its ("brightness") overall light transmission. Good luck. PS- I am collecting old patio doors for mine also!!
A modification I would make to this would be to add a second layer of sheeting over the front of it to effectively double glaze it and reduce heat loss.
didnt put it under the deck i wanted to but it slope to much for me to work on it, plus because the box is had insulated it doesnt lose that much heat
@dotcombatgames I think she said she has a single duct fan running to channel the air throughout the chamber.
@SkunkTreeCarvings the best way to store is to heat your home as much as possible till the sun set .. then watch the temp sink over the night. then start all ove ragain.. dont work yourself to death trying to store the heat.. This iswhat really drags our altenrate energy movement.. people are mistaken for thinking that we must elminate traditoinal fuels outright which is unrealistic.. Just cut down demand as much as possible first then worry about storage much later.
Excellent! I love it.Where do you live?Some insulation to your ducting maybe handy to give you even more efficiency.Depends where do you live so during summer you may use the high heat BTU for regeneration of desiccant dehumidifier...I just love it..
great job. I think if I was going to make one that big i would take in to consideration the air likes to "Flow Smoothly" in the path of least resistance.
I think I would make smooth curved corners everywhere I could and have the exit hole be more like a funnel and on the end not the back.
Still who am I... I just found out about these like 30 min ago and like totally want to build my own test one to try and heat my garage in the winter. I see others use solar powered fans to, thats bad ass
Great solar heater. Great design! Thanks for sharing.
Looking through the comments I see where people have asked what material you used for the clear covering but didn't see an answer. It looks like corrugated roofing but looks clear. What is it and where did you get it?
Could you put a door to the inside for dehydrating food? Smells of drying fruit wafting through the house?
Great work. I am seriously thinking of making one myself. Thanks.
When you use metal in place of wood, paint it black to help with the heat. Also, you might think about painting your duct work a flat black to help with heat. Question, is your angle correct to get the max sun?
winter i will work just fine, but i do supplement heat with my gas heater
I’m curious to know if your neighbors have positive opinions on your solar furnace, since you seem to live in a suburban setting. Usually alternative energy sources bring out the N.I.M.B.Y. (Not In My Back Yard) opinions from its denizens. I happen to think you did a stand up job and that it is very much aesthetically pleasing but then again I would love to see these in every back yard.
i didnt use any paint, the first time i used rustolum high heat it not good to use stinks and has to cure, which the temps in the box never got over 275 for it to cure so , i put in flat roofing tin black color, cause the paint is bake on and has no odor to it,
@willjan1128 my bills remain about the same, you have to factor that gas went way up about 30 percent or more over the past three years, i est i saved about 6 -800 a year, and the unit cost me about 2000, with some mistakes, the unit should have been around 1400 only, so you can recoup in about 2-3 years, it all depend how much sun is out etc,,,
ok just for answer a few question,, i would not use any black paint, only the metal that already had the black paint on it, i got mine from a roofing supply store, the paint is bake on the metal, and the heat is not store, once the sun comes up a fan kicks on and the heat in the box is forced into the house,, the fan is slow,, so it on the a timer and turn off a few hours later,, when no sun i unplug it for that day,, i can put a senor on it but i have not done this yet,, ok thank, arleen
@IronHorsez88 thanks for the comment,, the wind has not been a problem i have it anchored very well,, we had 60 mph winds and not a problem still standing,, and yes the pipe leading to the and from the heater to the house is insulated, and also behind the panels,, and sides,,
I guess you would like it to be moveable a bit with the sun changing position, there is a bit of a solution, and you probably know this and maby some people dont, and that is to use an adjustable mirror to reflect light onto your air heater. And with your large heater, it guess it would be hard to find alot of mirrors and stuff, but maby even a few square yards of mirror is possible to add a few extra thousand watts into the air.
the pipes leading into the house is insulated, with 6 inch insulated duct into a 10 pipe to the house, your right without it , it would not work well
Try solar electric panel & fan combo with a thermostat controled louvers in the unit. That allows you to "set & forget", it's all automatic.
Thanks for the Idea..
Questions?
have you tried to use smaller air channels? so that the air would be forced to go back and forth more times? before being pushed back to the house?
have you tried to angle the the air channels a little? so that the low end is cold and the higher end would be for the hot?
have you tried adding any thermal mass to the black backing? and the insulate the thermal mass?
and you mentioned adding water pipes for collect hot water..
FANTASTIC BUILD!! Thank You!!
nice...how does it work in winter? Nice video and thanks for showing how it works