Ultra Cheap Solar heating

[vpbubbies]

I get your idea, "Cheers mate", however: My wife would without doubt, fail or hesitation, sufficate me with that blastic if I hung that in our front window instead of her drapes. Dont even want to think about it,,, shshshshsheeeeezzz, scraes me!

[CTOL1]

Love this stuff, Glad I have a south facing windows..

[oshkosh6972]

i love it.

[leerider52]

weaponeer there will always be Nay-Sayers ...I'm with DUCK always "keep moving foward" Me disabled with tools and way too much time, will be trying this & others in winter...southern Arizona

[weaponeer]

I'm moving shortly to northern NV, and I'll still be using this setup, as well as others that take longer to make and cost more but hopefully will be more efficient so I can totally cut day time heating and just use passive solar during the day

[ozartdotus]

Like your inventiveness, but do wonder about neg effects of heating plastic. Would a black fabric work as well? Thanx.

[weaponeer]

it's not any worse than your cars dashboard getting heated by the sun.

[ozartdotus]

With all due respect, how do you know that? As skeptical as I am about BIG BIZ, I am sure testing is done to determine if a car's dash will emit toxic fumes. Thin black plastic dropcloth, OTOH, was not designed for this purpose. Any thoughts on using cloth? Thanx agin.

[weaponeer]

if trash bags emitted toxic fumes from sunlight exposure, they would be banned than the lawyers would be all over TV saying.. have you ever used a trash bag? if so you too could collect money from X.

Cloth does not collect the heat very well, and I have yet to get it to radiate any to a degree to make it worth the trouble.

Aluminum painted black works very well

[JustAn0bserver]

Nice simple and fast. THis is excellant for the begginer solar experimenter.

Can you tell us what the air temp of the air going in at floor level, the room temperature and the air temp coming off the solar device at the ceiling.

I will certainly investigate this one but I will need to add the box heater to get my megga heating bill down for this coming Winter. That, Is my Goal......

[weaponeer]

typically incoming air was 65 degrees, and exiting heated air was 140 degrees during peak. The setup worked best when there was snow on the ground due to the reflected sun off the snow.

[ducksaregreat15]

Please don't knock this idea as something foolish. What he is demonstrating here is a Trombe Wall on the very cheap. Nothing wrong with that. You could improve the heat output by collecting outside the room and such. Or you could store the energy using the traditional Trombe design by replacing the black plastic with lets say tiles painted black left over from a 70's bathroom remodel job placed in a frame in front of the window. Liked it, please keep moving forward.

[weaponeer]

I'll be moving towards the aluminum can design next for my added heating. I'm moving out west as I'll be losing my south facing window, but The system I used for the last several years worked VERY well for the cost (free), and I'll be moving on to other passive solar designs to cut my heating costs in the future

[alexkram]

The other commenters are right, this design is actually worse than just letting the sunlight heat the room. What happens with empty window is some heat is absorbed and some is reflected onto other surfaces in the room, where it is eventually almost 100% absorbed. A window into a large room is essentially a black body absorber. The only heat that is lost is what is re-radiated back out the window, which is a small percentage indeed from objects far from the window.

[weaponeer]

actually you are very wrong. The open window is extremely inefficient at transfering energy (you are wrongly assuming no energy is lost). The simple design allowed 100% energy transfer with no loss of energy. The REAL results were $1000 less fuel needed to be purchased for the winter compared to prior years (or 1 months free heat for the winter)

[SuperNovaCain]

Can't be. Cause and Effect. At any point you will get X energy through that window, and once it's in, you can't do anything to amplify it. (You've admitted it works better when there's snow... that's because MORE light from outside is getting reflected in through your window) You are simply collecting and redirecting that energy. You aren't accounting for the "lost" energy absorption of all the other objects within sun-shot of that window.

[SuperNovaCain]

If you are realizing an energy savings then there's something you aren't telling or you aren't aware of. Do you live JUST in this room? If so, then you aren't concerned about heating any other rooms and concentrating all the heat energy into this 1 room makes sense. One of the reasons a Trombe Wall works is because it adds surface area for the energy collection. Changing your materials inside your window does not increase your potential energy.

[weaponeer]

The design of this pulled in cool air from the bottom, and the heated the air, and automatically circulating the air in the room, which is a living room, dining room, with a kitchen (no wall), so yes... these rooms were the rooms that were occupied 90% of the time. prior years required one additional tank of Propane for winter heating. the efficient collection of conversion of that light energy into heat is why I spent less money on fuel. The snow acted much like a mirror increasing the light

[weaponeer]

in the same manner that is used for solar cooking.

BTW the ceiling is a white drop down insulated ceiling that always stayed cool to the touch. by allowing all the energy to be collected on the wall I was utilizing all the energy and not worrying about dissipation, or trying to heat an insulated surface

[weaponeer]

You have two cars.. one black and one white.. both are in the sun and are collecting the same amount of heat.. the white car refects most of the heat rather than absorbers it, the black car absorbers it rather than reflects it. while I have done the testing, maybe you should try it sometime... take an assortment of colors, and measure the temperature. Under your thought process they all are the same temp, yet they are not. light colored carpet, dissipating much of the energy as light

[weaponeer]

on to white walls once again dissipating more energy, yet transfering very little of the energy into heat.

[SuperNovaCain]

I don't think that you understand your own explanation. You aren't using a closed system for your argument. Yes, of course different colours absorb and reflect energy differently... but they can't CHANGE how much energy is in the system. Your curtain is hotter by 20 degrees because everything else in your room is cooler by 1 degree.

Too many variables that you aren't measuring. Temp of every room. Outside tempurature. BTUs contributed from other sources. How many times you've opened a door.

[weaponeer]

I don't think you are following along. You do realize this is not a scientific paper or Theseus? It was a quick example on how I have been saving over a grand in heating bills. it's simple passive using a very large south facing window. no I'm not going to waste my time telling you how big the window is, it's azimuth, inclination. pointing out unheated rooms is a waste of time and not relevant. at the time this was the ONLY heated section of the whole house, but I'm also not going to work

[weaponeer]

out the square footage of the area being heated by the passive solar. If you want that information, then test it yourself. I was only interested in the $1,000 less heating bill for the winter for the second year in a row. Outdoor avg daytime temp was approx 9 degrees F. the floor temp at the window was approx 60 degrees, with the top of the unit being approx 100 degrees with the center temp running approx 190 degrees.

[weaponeer]

I can adjust the system so the plastic temp in the center runs around 250 degrees. as I had already stated the system draws cold air from the bottom, and it's heated and blown from the top, circulating the air in the room without a fan.

THIS IS NOT A SIMPLE PIECE OF BLACK PLASTIC HANGING IN FRONT OF THE WINDOW!

This has a very specific design using fluid dynamics. It is a very simple design using thick black plastic, foam, and tape, in a unique bellowed type of design

[weaponeer]

This is also not a DIY video, so I'm not going to show you the actual design, or how to make it. it just shows what is possible to make very quickly, and very cheaply if you take the time, and have a large south facing window suitable for passive solar collecting.

No one passive design approach is most advantageous in all climates or on all sites and situations

The type of passive solar being used here is a Direct gain design, and without window glazing.

[axt947]

He also forgets that the room itself and its content no longer heats up because the sun never heats this stuff. Duh 2!

[weaponeer]

about as much thats emanating from the dash of your car

[weaponeer]

and because your stupid, I'll point out that the sun would have been hitting very light colored objects, which reflect, and not absorb heat. You may try learning something about passive solar before commenting

[axt947]

Anybody bother to measure the fumes coming off the plastic? Duh!

[ernestinaolivera]

I just have two windows, not really big, One of them receives sun in the afternoon (the biggest one). If I hang a black piece of plastic there I'm going to be in the darkness for hours. So, this only would make any sense if this "method" could replace my electric heater which spends a lot of energy and money.

I don't know...

[weaponeer]

In the video you see the first version of the passive solar setup. the newer version (designed right after the video) takes a emergency space blanket, and has that on the inside. what happens is it reflects heat away from the window, it helps redirect all the heat up from the plastic, and it brightens up the room a great deal. my room now is not so drk as it was before, and while it is darker, it's warmer, and if I need a little light I use it only when I need it.

[ernestinaolivera]

Interesting. I'll try your idea.

Thanks a lot for your answer.

[hergombo]

The sun coming in the window has a certain amount of energy. If you let it hit the floor, walls and furniture it has the same effect as collecting at all between your plastic and the window. Fact is your increasing loses by concentrating 125*F

air against your glass instead of 68* air.

[weaponeer]

The fact is that the light hitting the floor would not create the same amount of heat as 90% of that light would be reflected and not absorbed due to the light colored floor. The system I have in place draws in cooler air at the bottom, heats it and exits the air at the top approx 60 degrees hotter, circulating the heat all without any fans. I have used 75% less heating fuel this year due to this passive solar design.

[Pougee]

Its a Trombe wall, Its a decent concept. Would you say this is more effective than heating a thermal mass with that bay window?

[imaginaryfriendship]

The action you missed after " the plastic gets hot" was that plastics release fumes when heated.

What a savings! woo!

[weaponeer]

The action you missed was the incoming air at the bottom is 67 degrees, yet the heated air is at the top is 125 degrees

[gnomietrout]

Nice. I live in the freezing cold on the Canadian Atlantic Seaboard. It's a great idea and I'm gonna give 'er a go. Thanx Dude!

[ianclivewright]

Like most of these solutions they only work really well when it's hot and you don't actually need the bloody thing. Ridiculous.

What about just stopping the taxing of fuel so it's not ridiculously expensive.

Here's an alternative stop pretending man made activity is causing warming, or is it climate change.

Or, producing some sort of scientific evidence for it, that's replicable scientific evidence by the way.

[weaponeer]

Don't need it? it's 25 degress F. outside right now (9:55 am). bottom of the plastic temp is 61.1 degrees with the top being 91.8 degrees, which is an increase of 30.7 degrees of FREE HEAT. peak heating time is still in 4 hours from now.

[ianclivewright]

Well it's not exactly free, you have to have a south facing bay window full of utility plastic sheets, which seems like a bad thing to me.

[weaponeer]

Does your mommy know your using the computer?

[packagewarren]

ha, ha, ha, lol, good one weaponeer. i like your idea. i'm going to give it a try. and you're right, no big boxes or cans to deal with and it comes down with very little effort. i've just subscribed to your name. any more ideas would be welcomed. thanx big-guy. later.

[billpeart]

when the temp is about 15 degrees and the sun ISNT "beating" through a window (typical winter day) about how hot does that plastic get then? will this work in a northern winter climate? i also have lots of shade around my house which is not beneficial to this type of heating..but, even if i can get an extra 5 degrees out of it i will be more than happy! great vid by the way

[weaponeer]

I live in Wisconsin, so it does work in the northern winter climate. in the past when there was snow on the ground (like today) the snow magnified the sun on the plastic. I'm south facing without any real shade.

I have modified the design a bit more to increase the surface area of the sun on the plastic, and added a solar blanket spaced approx 1 inch from the plastic so see if it works any better

[weaponeer]

It's always 10 degrees hotter during the day

[Carlstens]

What do You do about preventing a reverse air flow, at night?

[weaponeer]

close the curtains. lol