that's a nice looking project--however it's simpler to install a mirror where it will reflect the light into a window--benefits more light, no piping, no breaking the house's envelope, easier to install. It is an ongoing mystery to me why mirrors, durable stainless steel ones, are not used with more solar projects. I have mirrors in my one south facing window and they work fine,
p
greenskeeper
· 2 years ago
I believe this is active solar, as the air is then pumped somewhere (active takes energy). Passive solar would simply be having the sun heat your house through south-facing windows (passive uses no energy).
Asher
· 2 years ago
Yes, the pumping does make this "active" solar (though a little air pump should use vastly less energy than running a heater).
If you can mount one of these things onto the side of a building then you can use the fact that hot air rises to get rid of the pump, like this one:
I think it would kinda have to work. You've got a body that absorbs a fair amount of light (black cans), so they'd heat up and heat anything inside of them. Circulate the contents to the point of use, and you'll have a hot-anything-that-was-in-the-cans. For heating water, though, I would imagine that their action would be a bit slower. You'd need an insulated storage tank that cycled water through the cans.
Still not a bad idea. I might have to build one myself and see how well this works. Granted, I live in South Florida, and frankly, we have an abundance of heat as it is, so I'd have to find more meaningful things to do with the hot air or water.
Anyone? Bueller?
Robert Picone
· 2 years ago
Ivan,
I can't see how that would be more efficient, a mirror is rather limited in how much it actually transmits into the structure. (unless it's a convex mirror, in which case it is likely notably expensive, or it's a rather large window). One isn't really limited in how big to build their can-array.
Mirrors also are much more limited in what percentage of the day they work unles you want to shift them every hour, but as this seems to be mainly a mostly a morning thing anyway, I'm not sure that'd be too much of a problem.
matt
· 2 years ago
did this as a model for my 6th grade science fair. my partner and i won first prize. we built a house to scale and had the heat trapped by the solar collector heat the house.wow that was in 1992, i'm glad to see if have come so far..(lol)...
richard
· 2 years ago
If you're worried about aluminum and black paint in your water, use a heat exchanger :-) I don't think you'll hear people at nuclear power plants complaining about contaminated turbines and such :P
Big Al
· 2 years ago
This is a great solution for garage and basement growops where careful power management is a must unless you want to alert the authorities. Delightful.
Yuri
· 2 years ago
Very smart,
Aluminum inside is clean, no paint.
Solar panels are the best investment you can do, it will pay for it self in less that 5 years.
I might do it in my house.
A mirror is a stupid idea.
You can make it a passive, by using different heights.
Aaron
· 2 years ago
Add a small solar cell and fan and you DO have a passive system.
Jeff
· 2 years ago
This system really does work and it works good.
To improve upon it would be to fill the cans with
dry sand and you would now have bio-mass that
will hold the heat after the sun has gone down.
Adding the sand will also create more heat for heating
water by raising the temperature. I have used this type
of system to heat a 24ft above ground swimming pool.
Find a small solar panel and a deep cycle battery to
run the pump and pay the electric company nothing.
chabeli echevarria
· 1 year ago
how can u keep a can of soda warm on an insulator?????
L4N
· 1 year ago
The paint and cans would never touch water there smart guy. You heat a coil or the tank itself. Water never runs through the cans. Brighten up please.
L4N
· 1 year ago
The paint and cans would never touch water there smart guy. You heat a coil or the tank itself. Water never runs through the cans. Brighten up please.
Uncle B
· 11 months ago
This is an invaluable article and will show post (GRD) great republican depression Americans who will have migrated from cities to Shanty towns, how to keep their shacks warm! The will have lots of time to build things like this, as only temporary - part- time employment will be available! Somewhere among the car windshields recycled as solar heaters, and the old school-bus bodies used for greenhouses and chicken coops, and near the plastic tanks for brewing home brew, a space can be made for a group of folk to mass-produce really good units from cans picked for size and quality from local dumps of the Uber-rich. The warm air can be directed over rocks for heat storage, and recovery in the night! the GRD will Change our lifestyle, but never dampen our will to survive!
kansan
· 11 months ago
Yes it's PASSIVE. There is no mention of a fan, other than his dad's suggestion of adding one. No fan is needed to circulate air through the panel. Simple convection will pull air from the building and return heated air into the building. This is one person's implementation of an old idea. Simple and adaptable to use just about any salvaged materials. Some build similar panels directly on a South facing wall, with trough the wall ducting from the panel to the interior.
Essential Butter
· 9 months ago
Whats nice about it is that you can also make something called radiant floor board heating;or, could also use a heat exchanger. Butler heat exchange wand.
jbg
· 4 months ago
I'm fascinated - and now I have what may be a poorly thought out question. Would alternating rows of full, unopened beverage cans help retain enough heat to make this more effective into the evening, assuming that's when more heat would be needed? It would take longer to heat up, but would it allow for more usable heat in the dark hours?
Gravity Gardener
· 3 months ago
I have seen this concept several times across the internet, but wanted to build my own.
I used Black plastic pipe used for french drains to get the same effect for my heat chamber and it worked pretty well. No drilling of cans. This stuff works.
Take a look if interested.
http://gravitygarden.com/powergarden/?page_id=11
aly
· 3 months ago
this is a great idea.. now if only we could form this into a larger more innovative scale we could start heating hotel pools and hot tubs... i know at my own hotel we could use one of these to heat our pool and hot tub... any ideas on how to build one of these on a larger scale? other than getting a costly soloar panel for my not so large hotel could i build a couple to heat things and have them retain that heat? HELP suggestions please
All Comments
Aluminum and black paint in my water. Yum.
The rest is good, though.
Interesting build :)
that's a nice looking project--however it's simpler to install a mirror where it will reflect the light into a window--benefits more light, no piping, no breaking the house's envelope, easier to install. It is an ongoing mystery to me why mirrors, durable stainless steel ones, are not used with more solar projects. I have mirrors in my one south facing window and they work fine,
p
I believe this is active solar, as the air is then pumped somewhere (active takes energy). Passive solar would simply be having the sun heat your house through south-facing windows (passive uses no energy).
Yes, the pumping does make this "active" solar (though a little air pump should use vastly less energy than running a heater).
If you can mount one of these things onto the side of a building then you can use the fact that hot air rises to get rid of the pump, like this one:
http://www.motherearthnews.com/gallery.aspx?id=74688
Does this really work?
Gloria,
I think it would kinda have to work. You've got a body that absorbs a fair amount of light (black cans), so they'd heat up and heat anything inside of them. Circulate the contents to the point of use, and you'll have a hot-anything-that-was-in-the-cans. For heating water, though, I would imagine that their action would be a bit slower. You'd need an insulated storage tank that cycled water through the cans.
Still not a bad idea. I might have to build one myself and see how well this works. Granted, I live in South Florida, and frankly, we have an abundance of heat as it is, so I'd have to find more meaningful things to do with the hot air or water.
Anyone? Bueller?
Ivan,
I can't see how that would be more efficient, a mirror is rather limited in how much it actually transmits into the structure. (unless it's a convex mirror, in which case it is likely notably expensive, or it's a rather large window). One isn't really limited in how big to build their can-array.
Mirrors also are much more limited in what percentage of the day they work unles you want to shift them every hour, but as this seems to be mainly a mostly a morning thing anyway, I'm not sure that'd be too much of a problem.
did this as a model for my 6th grade science fair. my partner and i won first prize. we built a house to scale and had the heat trapped by the solar collector heat the house.wow that was in 1992, i'm glad to see if have come so far..(lol)...
If you're worried about aluminum and black paint in your water, use a heat exchanger :-) I don't think you'll hear people at nuclear power plants complaining about contaminated turbines and such :P
This is a great solution for garage and basement growops where careful power management is a must unless you want to alert the authorities. Delightful.
Very smart,
Aluminum inside is clean, no paint.
Solar panels are the best investment you can do, it will pay for it self in less that 5 years.
I might do it in my house.
A mirror is a stupid idea.
You can make it a passive, by using different heights.
Add a small solar cell and fan and you DO have a passive system.
This system really does work and it works good.
To improve upon it would be to fill the cans with
dry sand and you would now have bio-mass that
will hold the heat after the sun has gone down.
Adding the sand will also create more heat for heating
water by raising the temperature. I have used this type
of system to heat a 24ft above ground swimming pool.
Find a small solar panel and a deep cycle battery to
run the pump and pay the electric company nothing.
how can u keep a can of soda warm on an insulator?????
The paint and cans would never touch water there smart guy. You heat a coil or the tank itself. Water never runs through the cans. Brighten up please.
The paint and cans would never touch water there smart guy. You heat a coil or the tank itself. Water never runs through the cans. Brighten up please.
This is an invaluable article and will show post (GRD) great republican depression Americans who will have migrated from cities to Shanty towns, how to keep their shacks warm! The will have lots of time to build things like this, as only temporary - part- time employment will be available! Somewhere among the car windshields recycled as solar heaters, and the old school-bus bodies used for greenhouses and chicken coops, and near the plastic tanks for brewing home brew, a space can be made for a group of folk to mass-produce really good units from cans picked for size and quality from local dumps of the Uber-rich. The warm air can be directed over rocks for heat storage, and recovery in the night! the GRD will Change our lifestyle, but never dampen our will to survive!
Yes it's PASSIVE. There is no mention of a fan, other than his dad's suggestion of adding one. No fan is needed to circulate air through the panel. Simple convection will pull air from the building and return heated air into the building. This is one person's implementation of an old idea. Simple and adaptable to use just about any salvaged materials. Some build similar panels directly on a South facing wall, with trough the wall ducting from the panel to the interior.
Whats nice about it is that you can also make something called radiant floor board heating;or, could also use a heat exchanger. Butler heat exchange wand.
I'm fascinated - and now I have what may be a poorly thought out question. Would alternating rows of full, unopened beverage cans help retain enough heat to make this more effective into the evening, assuming that's when more heat would be needed? It would take longer to heat up, but would it allow for more usable heat in the dark hours?
I have seen this concept several times across the internet, but wanted to build my own.
I used Black plastic pipe used for french drains to get the same effect for my heat chamber and it worked pretty well. No drilling of cans. This stuff works.
Take a look if interested.
http://gravitygarden.com/powergarden/?page_id=11
this is a great idea.. now if only we could form this into a larger more innovative scale we could start heating hotel pools and hot tubs... i know at my own hotel we could use one of these to heat our pool and hot tub... any ideas on how to build one of these on a larger scale? other than getting a costly soloar panel for my not so large hotel could i build a couple to heat things and have them retain that heat? HELP suggestions please