5 DIY Solar Air Heaters! (Solar Air Heater Compilation Vid.) - 5 types - All Easy DIY's
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 10 มี.ค. 2017
- My 5 DIY Solar Air Heaters. Compilation vid. of the Solar Air Heaters i've made. the 5 types are: Steel Down-Spout solar heater, Steel Can solar heater, Aluminum Can solar heater, Screen Absorber solar heater and a channel/baffle solar heater. links to each original "complete" video with full-build instructions are posted below...
1.) Down-Spout heater........... • DIY Solar Air Heater! ...
2.) Steel Can heater................ • Homemade "Steel Can" S...
3.) Aluminum can heater....... • Solar Air Heater - DIY...
4.) Screen Absorber heater... • Solar Air Heater! - Th...
5.) Air Channel heater............. • Solar Thermal Air Heat...
bonus vid: a side-by-side test between the steel can heater and the screen absorber heater • Solar Air Heater Compa...
music is from YT's "copyright free" library. song titles... "the driving force" and "3rdEyeBlimp" - วิทยาศาสตร์และเทคโนโลยี
if you want a surprise, try the screen with a foil background rather than flat black, I saw a 15 degree gain using the reflective surface instead of flat black for the back of the panel. It was a side by side comparison with the same screen.. also the same length of screen folded back and forth in a wave profile instead of stretched in three flat layers also gave about a 15 degree gain over three flat layers.
speedbuggy16v any pictures to share ?
@@symonvanrisjel9959 sadly no, it was just a throw together for my own amusement. Looking back at it I am going to say the gains from the different way of laying the screens was probably just a trade off of heat gain vs air flow. But the foil vs black background I think was a true gain as more light, thus energy was reflected back onto the screen absorber which seems to be pretty efficient at transferring the energy to the air. There is some interesting reading on boundary layers and laminar flow if you google "The Zen of Passive Solar Heating Panel Design
Morris R. Dovey"
An interesting idea! Been gathering supplies for close to zero-budget heater. Might use aluminium foil for the backround.
Thanks for the tip!
Right on point. Like the virtually side-by-side comparisons with the thermo gun. This helps decide on what to build. For the cost of the aluminum downspouts, they aren't worth the money considering the screen gets just about as hot and is much cheaper. And then the channel is even cheaper and gets hotter. Thanks for the video!
Absorbers that have air flowing across the glazing lose a ton of efficiency. None of these are actually getting to their theoretical efficiency since they all circulate air past the glazing, which causes a lot of heat loss. It may not be an issue if you live in Arizona, where outdoor temperatures never get much below freezing, but in somewhere like Canada where temps regularly hit -40, the efficiency will drop way off. The ones where the air flow is kept inside tubes like the can and downspout units will work much better, but the open plenum design on these kind of negates any gains you get from the sealed airflow. The plenums on both ends of the tubes need to be sealed and insulated so that air flow only goes down the center of the tubes, not around the outside. This is also a poor efficiency design with the screen and flat plate absorbers, tube type absorbers have a much higher efficiency at low external temperatures. Also, drawing in cold outside air really knocks down efficiency, you need to recycle the cold air from inside the house, not try to heat outdoor air.
I have followed many of your builds and the "channel" box worked well for ME.
Free shower door from craig's list and scrap lumber. Free computer fan and magnets. I'll upgrade to a timer when I get the bug. Thank you for posting this comparison.
KaleidoscopeJunkie was the night
great comparison. I have wanted to build one for a few years. I definitely will try one of your designs.
Channel definitely looks like the cheapest/easiest/hottest. Thank you!!!
I’ve built a screen version just double the screen and put at an angle. Super easy and cheap. Who has time to cut cans and glue together!!!!!
Nice comparison. I like the idea of using the downspouts for a super easy build but the metal cans are a great up cycle project. I was surprised to see how effective the aluminum cans were.
The cans are steel he said on another vid.
Nice succinct comparitive...good work.
Have watched many tests. Thermodynamically speaking it is a ratio game of surface area of absorbtion, rate of dissipation and baffling of airflow over the surfaces.
The best tweek of quick hack is the downspout build with baffles. Cut backside bend in tabs. Another alternative is to put screen inside tubes. The aluminum cans will always out perform steel....cans just slower to accumulate, to build and paint. Thanx for great content!
Dude some big words for us amateurs using beer cans but surprised you didn’t throw in fan speed which also can make a big difference
Great video!
What is your most efficient solar air heater style? I know you have made a lot of them. Which is the best? Love your videos.
Great Video
Cool dude thanks for insight.
nice,
thanks lot.🌞
i built a large one a few years ago..it was the size of a sliding glass door..That was free glass, so i made mine huge.. the temperatures were hot, but you really needed a more powerful fan to make them worthwhile. I happened to have a blower fan. It moved a good amount of air. I used a variable fan controller and adjusted it for the desired temperature i wanted.. so it would speed up as it got hotter, and slowed down as it got cooler.. I used aluminum cans, I had a header at the top and bottom..and i think i had 11 towers of cans, and I can't remember how many tall.. My only issue was that i couldn't find any flex duct that would last. so after a few years, i decommissioned.. but it was great when i had it,,
Just stumbled upon your channel....this definitely looks like the simplest yet smartest design yet!! Thanks for the informative video. I see it’s been a while since you posted. Hope you are planning to make more videos!!
hi. i'll be making vids for 20 years (hopefully)
desertsun02
Want to learn please tell me which unit you personally favor as putting out best heat and which is near best but easier to make ?
Thanks
Great projects as usual. Have you done a price comparison with propane/ butane gas yet? Thanks
thanks
Thank for sharing
you're welcome 👍
Did you ever do the follow up video on the channel heater where you tacked the sheet metal into it, I can't find it and would love to see how it affects things. Great videos, thank you!
Amazing! I think I can live in the middle of nowhere with no electricity
looks like the Air Channel heater performs the best? also probably the cheapest and easiest to construct.
So which method seems to work the best and produce the most usable heat?
Can you make and test a solar heater using tinox... It is apparently the wold's greatest heat converter.
Todos tus videos de los distintos modelos y de como lo hacen estan muy bien. Pero no dices cuanto tiempo tarda en calentar una habitación y de cuantos metros cuadrados es esa habitación
Has anyone ever used patio windows with two panes does it heat up or not please
I think I would not drill the holes at the bottom of the frame but have a gap between bottom of the cans and the frame, then drill lots of little holes on the back so that the fan draws the air in and channels the air through the bottom of the can tube. If it's cold and windy outside you don't want cold air forced up the tubes and into the house. This way the fan has to pull air in. Whether or not it makes a difference to the outlet temperature being drawn into a cosy environment first I'm not sure as it might have some cooling effect on the upper cans
Yes they work during the day ….not so much at night …… but it could keep your heating from running during the day, here where I live its been cloudy alot …
Love them all. I wish I could see these working in -40. I feel like the air would be cooled down significantly just passing through the duct.
Insulate the ducting.
They work in any temperature so long as you have a bit of sunshine on the panel. Loss in the ducting I think would be minimal. The fan is pumping it straight into the house. You could probably run the ducting to eight metres in the roof void if you wanted the ventilation somewhere central. Bear in mind the primary function of these devices is to reduce relative humidity, dry air is much quicker and cheaper to heat. Then if your home is well sealed, you don't need to open windows and you get fresh warm air through your house changed every hour or so.
In order to really compare the heaters it must be done based on the energy extracted. It is a combinaison of air volume and temperature. So you must be able to measure the air volume and its temperature. BTU = CFM x (Tout - Tin) x 4.5
Something like zigzag (horizontally with little angle to prevent hot air getting trapped in high spots) metal pipes should heat better as air would get longer time to heat up.
Black roller blinds and table fan works just as well although the heat is not concentrated to a small diameter for temperature checks. okay so the rooms darker. But ur warm. But probably just as good without the construction, pipe work and hassle.
sir i have a suggestion toward developing the solar heater, why you don't make a loop of the Aluminium cans in the board , this loop have an open valves at end of a specific sides and this valves connected to the fan area directly, its about controlling the air circulation at a different distances for increasing or decreasing exposure of air to heat by the mentioned controlled open/closed valves, which make it more and more reliable.
hope to hear your reply soon
thank you.
I wish you would make more videos. Do you have reddit page? Would love to follow your projects! I am currently building a can solar heater (a mixture of steel and aluminium).
Now look I've been watching 👀 you for years and think you need to write ✍a book that is so pertinent to our world and would have it in my book case. I built a small cooler with small radiator, ice water and 12v pump and it works so I'll make a bigger one.
hi and thanks! i'm glad you're making the projects! (that's what it's all about) 😎
How about using solar panel as dark back drop area and or pri-heat camber,add some air flow diverter...
Heat may be a problem for the solar panel.
Hi Desert Sun! I am in the process of making passive solar heaters completely out of found materials for less fortunate members of my community. The only things I will need to purchase are the fan and solar panel. What is the cheapest fan and solar panel I could use outdoors?
I notice that you vent your panels from the back. Any particular reason? Have you considered venting it out from the top?
Thank you.
hi there. i think it's great that you are helping your community! you could vent it out the top if you wanted too. the best place to get the fans and the solar panels is amazon. they have lots of both of those. nearly all solar panels are made to be used outdoors and most if not all computer case fans will hold up fine. i've noticed that even the cheapest solar panels on amazon are pretty sturdy.
What is it for?
To put this on a house couldn’t you use air from the floor of a room as the intake air and then have the outlet air be pumped out the top. Also any estimate on how much sqft this will heat?
Yes. You can do this.
Where do I buy those heat exhausted fan?
hi there. you can buy those at stores like frys electronics or online at amazon
I tried the down-spout version. Full sun, temperature is 45 degrees outside. Hardly any heat at all when the fan is running. I have no idea what I did wrong :(
Is it possible that you were running your fan too fast and causing the air to transfer through the heater before it could warm up?
You could put these units inside on a sunny window
I built one with corrogated metal with no glazing and fit it to my window. Worked great. Take it down in the sommer.
How could I use such a heater at night? Is there a kind of storage device one could add to the solar panel in order to use the heat charged during the day at night? I do not understand much of these things, so I apologize if my question seems way to farfetched.
hi there. one idea is you could store the heat it generates in thermal mass like sand or rocks. you'd have to rig it up so that the unit heats those up during the day and then at night they'd release the heat.
@@desertsun02 Thank you for your advice. Must it be special rocks? And would they really heat 8m2 during nights with 10 below zero?
Can it warm up a 2 stall garage?
hi. if you've got the sun and size it correctly it should. 🙂
I am curious as to how long these units radiate heat after the sun goes down?
Not long , depending on materials used , I built one for my 4x6 greenhouse, just wanted to preheat fresh air , do not want to kick on my heaters also solar power , but greenhouse stays at 70f degrees with outside air at 30 f and now can add fresh air without kicking on heaters , of course just need sun to stay out , but using every bit of Mother Nature is fun hobby
Great question. I guess if they had a greater Thermal Mass (like a concrete backing) they would radiate heat longer. The fan speed would need to be reduced.
I think you said it was 50 degrees out? What kind of heat can one get when its say....30 out?
The output heat is dependent on the solar intensity (which is less during the winter), length (time) of solar exposure , & heat loss of the system. You'd therefore get less heat out on average during colder months.
A number of factors come into play. The sun's intensity is less in winter, so that's a start. Keep in mind that a small heater unit like any these will not give enough heat to warm a building. These are great examples of what can be done at home, but you'll want to build something quite a bit larger for more surface.
....another point to remember is that the intake air side will supply air from inside the structure, so it will not be frigid to start with... you're heating air that's probably already 60 or more degrees. Don't try to heat cold outside air.
What happens if you don't have a fan?
hi. if you don't use a fan, the warm air will only trickle out. the units that don't need fans are generally 10 or 15 times bigger.
Nice vid but I wish someone would do these different styles more scientific so you can really see the difference between them. Like all the boxes being the same size, same fan, all out simultaneously in the sun.
hi there. i've got a couple vids like that. they compare 3 different types of heaters (the steel can one, the screen absorber one and the downspout one) *they're made almost identical (the downspout one is a little different, but close)
Do you feel there is one that works better than the others?
hi there. they are fairly similar but i like the downspout one the best. the steel is thick on those and i made the collector with a plywood back
I haven't seen a single design that show recycling the air. I'm building a greenhouse, so I need to take that air through a tube in from the bottom from the greenhouse and return it back to the greenhouse
It’s pretty easy just add return hose (duct ) to air intake on your design, I use this for fresh air that I reheat through solar collector as to not turn on heaters for my 4x6 greenhouse, my greenhouse is pretty tight and during 30 degree days need some fresh air without letting in all that cold air , any of these designs will increase temp from outside air so really adds to greenhouse hobby and vegetables love fresh air
Why would you think anyone would want to look at the sun?
I built a beer can heater five years ago and it works better than any of these. Why? Because they are all lacking a thermoplane. You need to draw room air into the heater, heat it, and let convection blow the air out of the top. You start by finding out the elevation of the sun mid day during the middle of winter. Then you build an angled top piece that fits in the lower panel of a window in your home so your heater is at a 90 degree angle to the sun maximizing solar gain. Room air flows in the bottom plane all the way to the bottom of heater unit, gets pulled into the cans or sheet metal where it heats and convection rises and blows into the room without needing a fan. I built mine out of double layers of foil faced Styrofoam taped with metal duct tape. The top is a corrugated clear green house panel. Styrofoam layer between the cans and the lower air plenum. Normal input vs output temp differential is around 50 degrees and I get around 6 hours per day of heat. Weight of eight foot unit is around 30 lbs. Light enough for most seniors to handle.
hi. i generally like to pull in outdoor air because it's fresh but you can certainly recirculate if you want to. it gives the highest heat on the coldest days. my climate is not super cold like the midwest or eastern states
Why do Americans say "hunnurd" not HUNDRED?
Same reason they say aksed instead of asked I guess : )
@@sticky59 That's only a certain coloured ones.................
@@hughjaanus6680 You can say tomato and I can say toma'o, but they both taste the same.
@@jerrysamuels8716 Not all tomatoes taste the same, you haven't lived.
thanks