passive solar air heater

also called a window box heater. see this website for a cross section view and plans for someone else's window box heater: http://www.jrwhipple.com/sr/solheater.html

Category:

Howto & Style

Tags:

• sustainable
• energy
• passive
• solar
• air
• dehydrator
• permaculture
• building

[Icabad]

would love to see a heat measurement - a 30 dollar unit at the hardware store works well (for lots of different things) or just a thermometer. Having watched a lot of these vids online, and constructed a couple prototypes myself, it seems that we all need to figure out the best/easiest/cheapest/simplest materials and come up with a basic plan, that won't freak out the neighbors, is easy to setup and move, and then go to town. $2000 invested in this will outweight 10x that in solar photovoltaic.

[lovestopsfear]

thanks for your enthusiasm. i have seen a version that uses 3" flexible aluminum duct snaking around the interior of a window box. This design was automated in that it turned on a fan when the temperature reached a certain degree. It seemed easier to make and relatively inexpensive.

[Icabad]

@lovestopsfear are you still using this box, or do you roll it out for the winter?

I see someone else was asking for temperatures. Any chance we could get you to put a thermometer in the opening for a few minutes? I bought a little 5 or 10 dollar jobbie at wal-mart or lowes that measures humidity, but it also keeps the highs and lows for the last 24 hours... i check it to see how cold it got the night before (inside my ecobox).

[lovestopsfear]

@Icabad I'm not putting the window box in this year, unless my roommate is game for it in his window. sorry! i might try to get a friend to try it.

[2JobsStillPoorUSA]

@RandomConcepts he didn't really give info on how much heat it pushes. But my "inside" version can raise the temp by about 5 degrees inside the house over a period of a few hours.

[2JobsStillPoorUSA]

Husband and I built something similar as part of a solar dehydrator. Instead of hang it out the window, it just sits in a south window inside the house. It is currently 59*F outside and my passive solar heater is putting out 100.1*F inside the house at 2pm. I used an old 30gal aquarium for the glass, door jam, paneling, foam backed duct insulation, and aluminum flashing painted black. Works great!

[johnlvs2run]

Temperatures?

[centervilletn]

i cut a 4 inch circle hole in my wall and put a dryer vent into the house...facing the south..for the most efficient use of sun energy put the pannel on a southern facing wall at your lattitude plus 15 degrees.....

[centervilletn]

i built mine from galvalume corrogated roofing..it works great...im building a 4x24 for my house...

[bbbleaver]

that's really amazing! staying warm while eliminating a portion of the utilities bill is very appealing. would there be a way to capture the heat inside the house in some kind of cob or material with thermal mass?