Treehugger - Latest Comments in Soda Can Solar Panel

Re: Soda Can Solar Panel

Kevin A — Tue, 27 Sep 2016 12:43:52 -0000

UNfortunately, your idea could easily burn down your house.
Good luck with that...LOL

Re: Soda Can Solar Panel

Balt_Gracian — Wed, 02 Jan 2013 15:40:41 -0000

Sunlight entering a window is pretty much your 1st stop passive solar architectural technique. But for that technique to work best, it also needs thermal mass on the receiving side of the equation, such as a stone or cement wall or floor. The glass will also cut down on some of the solar heat received. Just my 2 c's (former employee at the Solar Energy Research Institute, Golden, CO.)

Re: Soda Can Solar Panel

CoBaja — Sun, 15 Apr 2012 19:04:50 -0000

great project! My friend posted complete DIY guide for pop-can DIY solar panels at http://solar.freeonplate.co...

Re: Soda Can Solar Panel

Jau — Tue, 25 Jan 2011 05:41:16 -0000

If you have a suitable rooftop, you could make it by using black tubes in the same manner.

Re: Soda Can Solar Panel

Jackcosby — Wed, 01 Dec 2010 09:05:33 -0000

Years ago a made a window solar panel with vent on the bottom and one on the top.... cold are comes in naturally at the bottom and the warm air escapes naturally at the top and creates a natural convection

Re: Soda Can Solar Panel

Jackcosby — Wed, 01 Dec 2010 09:01:00 -0000

the sell solar pool covers

Re: Soda Can Solar Panel

Jackcosby — Wed, 01 Dec 2010 08:57:13 -0000

The problem has always been storage and transfer of energy. People have tried water, oil, and even phase change salt, to try and store the heat. All work to some degree.

Re: Soda Can Solar Panel

shane — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 19:18:45 -0000

i just made one of these using aluminum rain guttering and et 20 degrees outside and full sun the air comming into the house was 140 degrees for aprox 5 hrs a day, im making 6 more panals

Re: Soda Can Solar Panel

specialk30 — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 23:21:18 -0000

so would it really save you anything to do this, since your using electricity to run the pumps? i dont think it would amount to much, but the "green" value is ok.

Re: Soda Can Solar Panel

aly — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 17:19:50 -0000

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

Re: Soda Can Solar Panel

Gravity Gardener — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 06:01:58 -0000

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/po...

Re: Soda Can Solar Panel

jbg — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 16:01:17 -0000

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?

Re: Soda Can Solar Panel

Essential Butter — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 00:22:19 -0000

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.

Re: Soda Can Solar Panel

kansan — Sun, 25 Jan 2009 02:32:30 -0000

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.

Re: Soda Can Solar Panel

Uncle B — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 07:25:18 -0000

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!

Re: Soda Can Solar Panel

L4N — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 13:54:28 -0000

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.

Re: Soda Can Solar Panel

L4N — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 13:53:42 -0000

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.

Re: Soda Can Solar Panel

chabeli echevarria — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 08:24:04 -0000

how can u keep a can of soda warm on an insulator?????

Re: Soda Can Solar Panel

Jeff — Fri, 12 Oct 2007 23:56:10 -0000

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.

Re: Soda Can Solar Panel

AaronD12 — Wed, 02 May 2007 11:15:17 -0000

Add a small solar cell and fan and you DO have a passive system.

Re: Soda Can Solar Panel

Yuri — Tue, 01 May 2007 20:57:05 -0000

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.

Re: Soda Can Solar Panel

Big Al — Tue, 01 May 2007 20:35:52 -0000

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.

Re: Soda Can Solar Panel

richard — Tue, 01 May 2007 20:08:52 -0000

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

Re: Soda Can Solar Panel

matt — Tue, 01 May 2007 20:08:17 -0000

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)...

Re: Soda Can Solar Panel

Robert Picone — Tue, 01 May 2007 19:21:32 -0000

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.