I made a 68 by 28 inch Indoor Window Solar Collector, out of down spouts. It is totally self sufficient. It runs off of 4- 1.8 watt Solar Panels. The Solar Panels drive a 4 inch 90 cubic feet per minute Computer Case Fan. On a good sunny day I can get 138 degree temp out of the fan. But the whole array turns into a 68 inch heater also. I have a ceiling fan in the same room and I can heat my main level of my house very well with this. It is an amazing window heater. I'm glad I built it. Peace.
Also, with the hot exhaust at the top, most of the heat coming into the building will go straight to the ceiling, rather than warming the volume of air that you actually spend your time in. It would be better to duct the hot air a distance from the heater. The cold air intake should be at ground level, even if it needs a duct, so the coldest air in the room enters the heater, which will increase its efficiency and decrease external heat loss (see my previous comment \/ ).
It's good to see someone doing these who doesn't have a massive professional workshop.. So annoying when people do green energy diy videos and they are using $50,000 machinery
Try using polyester black felt (purchased from Joanne's Fabrics), center half way between the front and back of the panel. the air flows through it and it has MUCH more surface area than your curved cans. I built 2 4 x 8 panels and they produce 135F easily. The black coloring is impregnated in the polyester fiber, so it will not fade like paint.
The backing that he describes as like a plastic made like cardboard is called coreplast, for any one wanting to know. Good video, Thanks Rich, Happy building everyone.
I made one similar to this but larger so I could space the can rows apart about two inches and installed a mirror under them. The cans I painted flat black all around and used the foam insulation on the bottom and sides of the box. I used 10 stacked cans by 10 rows and this set up produced enough heat that it made my small home shop 95 degrees by noon. I live in an open area with no trees and it was a full sunny day with outside temp @ 35 the mirror helps to reflect heat to the back of cans
I have dreamed of making one of these. You have an excellent grasp of the process and I really enjoyed watching. Can't wait to see the other ones you have done.
I'm a single mum and I am half way through making a couple of these for my house this winter. Thanks x a million . No more ridiculously high energy bills.
Nice job Rich, I am finishing my 3rd unit. I found old shower doors make very nice covers too and they are a dime a dozen...dont have to sand blast them either. I wil post my video of the creation soon. keep it up!!
im starting my first build after saving a load of cans. starting to proces te cans now. Thank you for this vid and it will be fun project to work on! Cheers from Holland.
Very nice. One easy and cheap adjustment to make which could yield up to a 40% increase in efficiency would be to install a compound parabolic concentrator (CPC) behind each tube.
I bought one of those 1.5W solar panels but didn't think it would keep a battery charged up enough to keep my fan running all day. I found a local shop that had a nice 5W on sale and will use it instead. Hopefully this weekend I can complete my heater box and put it up for use by Monday.
If you want more energy coming into your house/workshop, you need to keep the temperature of the cans low by increasing the flow rate and decreasing the turbulence inside the cans (bigger holes). This is because the hotter the cans, the more heat they radiate back out of the device. The same amount of energy will hit the device from the sun, whether the flow is fast or slow, but less energy is lost when their temperature is low.
Brilliant painting it black, first time ive seen it pained black that way. Im sure that increases the heat alot more then leaving the cans as they are.
@YTSparty I think everyones situation would be different depending on several factors. We are lucky enough to have windows facing directly south and our roof is slanted due west. We have no overhangs that prevent sunlight, and nothing blocking the sun on the south side of our house. We get plenty of heat generated via the window method for most of the daylight. We put one up in an east facing window, with larger overhangs and it still produced heat in the early morning hours.
Just realised what I said about the vacuum affect wouldn't work but the fins, maybe like triangular prism running in between the rows of cans like how radiators have connectors, keep up the great work, i cant wait for when I get my house and can build one myself :-)
Awesome :) I am familiar with DC fans. A large fan under-volted will be much quieter, and move as much air as a small fan at full voltage. It's just something to think about if you find the fans are noisy.
Think you panel is brilliant and love how you build it from recycled cans, food for thought: if you were to create a means of extracting the air between the cans and the glass/plastic panel may help improve efficiency as it has less air to heat before it reaches the cans plus maybe craft some small fins to bridge the gap between the parallel rows of cans and also increase your surface area and heat input
Great job - It sounds contrary but I think you have to reverse the cold are intake and hot air output. Pulling warm are that is higher, sending it through the unit, and then blowing it in from to a lower point will allow the warm air to mix in with the cool and warm the room better. If not then use a fan on low to gently blow the warm air down and mix in with the cool air to even up the temperature throughout the room.
I think the person you replied to is suggesting a thermal reflector to reflect radiated heat back to the cans, though simply insulating the area behind the cans would be more effective.
Houses that have forced hot air heating nearly always have the vents near the floor because hot air rises. Of course, you want to pull the air from the bottom because colder air sinks. So you should pull the air from one vent on the bottom of the wall or floor and introduce the hotter air at the floor level on the other side of the room. That might be the limiting factor, he might not have enough hose to do keep the 2 ports far enough away from each other.
One idea,one could put energy drink cans(narrow) inside those,also could take an wire and put it around some stick like coil take it off and put it into the cans,that will probably heat up the stuff .Also low cost and low weight.Sorry for lang. mistakes
This guy makes something amazing and all you can do is comment on his clothes. How about a Good Job, or awesome video? What is wrong with people today. They taught us in elementary school that it's not about what clothes you wear. I really liked this video this stuff is very interesting to me.
Nice vidi .......... would have thought that one large hole would work well......... there is a large lip to get the air to tumble through the cans ........ and why use power to push the air in and out of the unit ..... convection should carry it if the flow is not too restricted. But great unit & love the workshop ! BadDL282 Has a good point, but then again 75% of heat is lost from the head ...... i'm sure there are yards of paper coverd out their of this stuff. Regards Bob ( London )
@0urGaia For sure...but I'm fairly satisfied with the amount of energy we can absorb right now...it's pretty damn good. I'd say our biggest problem is the glass. I'm building mine double pane...but even then it's losing a ton of heat...besides going triple pane I don't really know what else we can do. I was thinking of filling the glass with co2 though...
Nice work,but i believe it more effective if you matched airflow through the unit with the port sizes. That is to say, if you need three can diameters to match the diameter of the inlet/outlet, then place 3 cans in parallel throughout the unit and have a channelling effect so that there are only 3 long channels flowing through the box from inlet to outlet. air is then being heated for a longer distance,absorbs more heat &there will be no restrictions in the air flow if the ports match the ducts
This is GREAT. I love the design. My favorite part was using the beer coosy for safer drilling. Have you tried using MONSTER energy drink cans? They are already black so that would cut out a step for you! I might try something similar this summer. I'll let you know how it goes! Thanks again for posting this!
Hi the metal grabs the heat and slows it down. If you just have a box and put a fan on it the box would. Cool down and not make good heat with nothing to trap the heat and hold it. My downspout heater when it gets sun it runs around 110. Steady as long as it gets sun. Rich
@0urGaia True...except when aluminum is painted/powder coated black that makes up for that factor. Too bad copper is just too expensive...black copper would be amazing.
Looks like maybe the hot air disrupts the cold air intake a little (because it points down). Another fella put a sheath on the hot air fan to make sure it circulates the air away from the low cold air uptake fan...
@taylordesignsllc Using cans as duct work inside the box gives more surface area to heat. The more surface area you have for the air to come in contact with, the more heat it will gain. Also, this slows the velocity of the air down, which allows it to gain more heat.
@sc00b3rt You would be limiting the amount of sunlight depending on the angle of your window with the sun. I have a slanted roof due south, laying a collector on the roof would like be 10x more effective than simply collecting the heat from inside.
Haven't stopped thinking about this since I saw your video last week, was thinking maybe if you made it from cans that cat&dog food come in, they have ripples in them which should increase the surface area and may also slow the air passing through them slightly so it has more time to absorb heat.
i built one of these, and here are my thoughts. its a fun project. I've only used it for a couple weeks. i am getting between 130 and 150 coming out of the solar heater and into my house. here is the downside, there is not enough volume of air coming out to add any real heat to a room. i put a fan and the bottom to force more air up and out the top. that did help, but im afraid it is still not enough volume of air to make any meaningful difference in the feel of the room. any ideas from anyone?
wow this is bad ass !!! I just wish it had a few more details for the fans and the solar and the battery. BC that part I have no ideal how to do it. come build me one lol
i am seriously planning on building one ~400 can heater in Finland, i have big old windows so i was planning on using them as they are meant for use outside(plus they were free). I think the most important thing is to get the "middle space" between the glass and the cans as airtight as possible?
Awesome videos!! Can you make one and explain how you set up you solar panels to charge your batteries. Where did you get them and what will it do? I have always been told you can’t store the energy for solar panels. Any guidance is MUCH appreciated!
Easier way.. get a sheet of Insulfoam from Home Depot. Measure you window and make a box out of the foam ONLY. Paint the inside black and cans. Put a ledge across the bottom. Make hole along top and bottom. Insert a small computer fan run by solar charger. Then place this unit into the windows from the INSIDE of the house. It is very lightweight and can be taken down when summer returns. Produces 120-150F heat.
I would suggest removing it from the door. The sun will heat what it hits inside the house/shop. By blocking the window with the casing, you are loosing what heat would have been generated in that space. I would move the heater to the right of the door where it is just siding.
Thanks for posting this video, I really like your set up and the work seemed very tight. That's how I like to do things, nice neat and clean! Anyways, I was curious if you or anyone on here knows how well these perform on a cloudy day. I live in upper Michigan and it's often cloudy and overcast. I'm still trying to learn but I haven;t found too much on these solar furnace performance's in the different weather conditions. Maybe someone knows of some good articles. But thanks again!
Great job! I just posted a video of a 90 can panel with an AC fan. I did this as sort of a test before I sunk good money for a big one for the house. I plan on powering the future DC fan with a PV panel and no battery. I tested 7 fans with the panel in the sun and while doing so I got 135°F on the outport when it was 50° outside. Exciting stuff. Keep us posted and I'll do the same..Feels good doesn't it?
I was also thinking the same, but I guess its because if you give out the heat from the top then heat would only stay at sealing level leaving out the lower portion of the floors cold... (thats a guess by the way)
@SeanJaves Yep yep. You are right! The system is so simple and easy to use too. I build myself in an almost perfect panel from my first attempt. And now its been 4months since we're solar powered and we've gone off the grid completely. Anyway, you must have interchange the site name. It should be: GreenEnergyNow.info
@0urGaia Only thing is about co2 is that it could all be bullshit and co2 might do nothing different other than plain old air. I was thinking about car exhaust though....and my other thought was how much heat soil retained...the unit might be heavy as hell...but what if the cans or whatever held soil?...maybe even aspault coating the metal..
@sc00b3rt i was thinking, do you think if we had the cans snake around it would work better? what i mean is, instead of having air go from bottom to top in all the rows of cans..have the air start in one row, when it gets to the top, push the air back down the next row over, and then back up through the following for ever row of cans. that way the air would remain inside of the cans longer. what do you think?
Is there a Supply List and instructions for someone who has never done this before? It may be because I am a woman, but I need a list of what I need to go buy and step by step instructions. If you could direct me to a book that I might buy or tell me who might be able to teach me these things I would be greatly appreciative. Thanks
Water boils at 212 but still evaporates into the air at low temperatures. Lab tests show that the water temps in dishwashers can release the BPA. Find an alternative to pop cans.
The paint is on the outside of the cans. The air to your house passes through the inside of the cans. Built properly air from the case shouldn't be passing into your home.
Looks like a great version of a beercan heater...Im in the process of getting off the grid completely, i've got a 2 wind turbines that are almost finished and im looking into a high efficiency solar system that i can build and install as "DIY" as possible...just wondering if you have any suggestions about the solar stuff...Thanks!
Great job! Those were very clear instructions...I can't wait to start my own. I'm curious as to how the thermostat and battery are wired, maybe you could post a video or schematic for this. Thanks.
It's a good video. but I think the design needs better insulation. Plus the way he mounted it isn't really getting the best 🌞. But I do think what he did was really cool. Especially if you were to combine it with Earth pipe technology. Like they use with below-ground geothermal greenhouses. Can you imagine.. All you would need it's just a little bit of solar to keep a house warm during the day and perfectly livable at Night. Then take the excess energy and put it into a electric car. put the electric-car potentially on a rail steel on steel gets 90% better efficiency. 300 miles ×90 on rail equals 27000 miles. I mean hell they make carbon fiber cars that actually recharge up to 40 miles per day on normal tire to road conditions. 40 mi * 90 is 3600. and at 100 mph per day it would only go through 2400miles with a power per day. With a remainder of 1200 miles per day.
Rich, very cool ho wlong does it produce warm air seems like it would heat up your thermostat would activate and the fan would circulate the warm air out, leaving you with cooler air is this not the case? seems like you should have a drop in temp
Great idea! I'm thinking of building one of these for my shed.Thinking of taking the ends off cans and making elbows for the corners so the air has to pass through every can like a snake first,instead of epoxy,using duct or alum. tape painted black .Also thinking of using glass on both top and bottom,and putting that silvery film on the glass that reflects heat mounted backwards on the inside so the heat can't reflect back out of the box.Have you tried any of these ideas before I start my build?
sould be cool having an 18 or 25 cm Computer case fan instead of a fullpower motor to use for the heat transfer mostly since its on 12 volts and doesnt require that much energy when used
You fell at the last hurdle, Rich! :-( By covering a window (or in this case, a glass door) you've lost the insolation value of the glass. The solar energy that would have entered your home directly through the glass as light now has to heat aluminium, which heats the air, which then enters your home. You'd probably have been better off just laying dark tiles or slate/stone on your floor to soak up the heat.
thats the guy who made solar heaters from Pop cans,silly in my mind, as i tried doing a solar direct air long ago but its just a Bad idea as when it gets colder and WET from moisture yeah get black mold and its just a waist to have them holes in ur house as it will be way more of a Heat deficite in the long run. I mean all that work to cut Pop cans? how much is a piece of pipe with no little joints from Home depo? was this promoted by the Oil industy bc so much work for a Bad idia
hi I like your video. I was thinking if you made one about 4 times the size of the one you made and put it on a roof and went through your roof and tied it into the plentum of an existing furnace and only ran the fan on your furnace would that work.
@0urGaia Steel has a lower thermal conductivity than aluminum. simple fact. Btw..if you want more heat you go the copper route...and if you're rich...try gold...or even better...diamonds.
That was excellent. Thanks for sharing that. I was wondering, also, what can one do for the night time to keep things warm? Would the primary suggestion be to use as much photovoltaic units as possible to charge a large series of batteries, and use an electric heater?
So does the thermostat close the circuit, turning the fan on at 110 and open the circuit at 90, turning the fan off? I really like the idea of having a simple thermostat like that.
i have an idea. im not sure if it would work well but its and idea. so obviously the sun heats the cans and brings warmer air in. now i was thinking for cooling if i made another set of cans in a case and buried it in the ground. then when it was summer, move the fan to push air through the buried cans to bring cooler air in. sorta like a geothermal for air. might not work well but its an idea, and very cheap. any thoughts?
@richallen-isn't there window film available that would allow heat to enter but not escape? I think that would improve the efficiency of this unit. BTW, love the idea. How many would it take to heat a 24x50 ft. one-story Massachusetts home if they were mounted on the roof?
Would you mind telling me what kind of a bit is it that you used to drill the holes in the 2/4 in the bottom with, and the cans? Is there a special kind of silicon suggested for gluing the cans together? Thanks and great work!
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I made a 68 by 28 inch Indoor Window Solar Collector, out of down spouts. It is totally self sufficient. It runs off of 4- 1.8 watt Solar Panels. The Solar Panels drive a 4 inch 90 cubic feet per minute Computer Case Fan. On a good sunny day I can get 138 degree temp out of the fan. But the whole array turns into a 68 inch heater also. I have a ceiling fan in the same room and I can heat my main level of my house very well with this. It is an amazing window heater. I'm glad I built it. Peace.
Also, with the hot exhaust at the top, most of the heat coming into the building will go straight to the ceiling, rather than warming the volume of air that you actually spend your time in. It would be better to duct the hot air a distance from the heater. The cold air intake should be at ground level, even if it needs a duct, so the coldest air in the room enters the heater, which will increase its efficiency and decrease external heat loss (see my previous comment \/ ).
I really liked the idea of mounting it on the door.
I built a large 160+ popcan solar heater. 185deg on a 35deg sunny day. Work great to heat my shed.
It's good to see someone doing these who doesn't have a massive professional workshop.. So annoying when people do green energy diy videos and they are using $50,000 machinery
Try using polyester black felt (purchased from Joanne's Fabrics), center half way between the front and back of the panel. the air flows through it and it has MUCH more surface area than your curved cans. I built 2 4 x 8 panels and they produce 135F easily. The black coloring is impregnated in the polyester fiber, so it will not fade like paint.
The backing that he describes as like a plastic made like cardboard is called coreplast, for any one wanting to know. Good video, Thanks Rich, Happy building everyone.
I made one similar to this but larger so I could space the can rows apart about two inches and installed a mirror under them. The cans I painted flat black all around and used the foam insulation on the bottom and sides of the box. I used 10 stacked cans by 10 rows and this set up produced enough heat that it made my small home shop 95 degrees by noon. I live in an open area with no trees and it was a full sunny day with outside temp @ 35 the mirror helps to reflect heat to the back of cans
I have dreamed of making one of these. You have an excellent grasp of the process and I really enjoyed watching. Can't wait to see the other ones you have done.
I'd love to get a step by step guide on building this with all the electronics.
I'm a single mum and I am half way through making a couple of these for my house this winter. Thanks x a million . No more ridiculously high energy bills.
Did they work ok? Id love to know as i want to build 2 for my home 1 for upstairs and one for down.
Jonathan Oakley she froze to death
some needed answers for these great questions and great input, I don't know why he isn't answering though.
Nice job Rich, I am finishing my 3rd unit. I found old shower doors make very nice covers too and they are a dime a dozen...dont have to sand blast them either. I wil post my video of the creation soon. keep it up!!
im starting my first build after saving a load of cans. starting to proces te cans now.
Thank you for this vid and it will be fun project to work on!
Cheers from Holland.
Very nice. One easy and cheap adjustment to make which could yield up to a 40% increase in efficiency would be to install a compound parabolic concentrator (CPC) behind each tube.
I bought one of those 1.5W solar panels but didn't think it would keep a battery charged up enough to keep my fan running all day. I found a local shop that had a nice 5W on sale and will use it instead. Hopefully this weekend I can complete my heater box and put it up for use by Monday.
If you want more energy coming into your house/workshop, you need to keep the temperature of the cans low by increasing the flow rate and decreasing the turbulence inside the cans (bigger holes). This is because the hotter the cans, the more heat they radiate back out of the device.
The same amount of energy will hit the device from the sun, whether the flow is fast or slow, but less energy is lost when their temperature is low.
Brilliant painting it black, first time ive seen it pained black that way.
Im sure that increases the heat alot more then leaving the cans as they are.
@YTSparty I think everyones situation would be different depending on several factors. We are lucky enough to have windows facing directly south and our roof is slanted due west. We have no overhangs that prevent sunlight, and nothing blocking the sun on the south side of our house. We get plenty of heat generated via the window method for most of the daylight. We put one up in an east facing window, with larger overhangs and it still produced heat in the early morning hours.
Just realised what I said about the vacuum affect wouldn't work but the fins, maybe like triangular prism running in between the rows of cans like how radiators have connectors, keep up the great work, i cant wait for when I get my house and can build one myself :-)
Awesome :)
I am familiar with DC fans. A large fan under-volted will be much quieter, and move as much air as a small fan at full voltage.
It's just something to think about if you find the fans are noisy.
Nice video. Easy to understand too. Great work...very inspiring!
Made me laugh, video starts "this ma box". Thanks great video.
Think you panel is brilliant and love how you build it from recycled cans, food for thought: if you were to create a means of extracting the air between the cans and the glass/plastic panel may help improve efficiency as it has less air to heat before it reaches the cans plus maybe craft some small fins to bridge the gap between the parallel rows of cans and also increase your surface area and heat input
Great job - It sounds contrary but I think you have to reverse the cold are intake and hot air output. Pulling warm are that is higher, sending it through the unit, and then blowing it in from to a lower point will allow the warm air to mix in with the cool and warm the room better.
If not then use a fan on low to gently blow the warm air down and mix in with the cool air to even up the temperature throughout the room.
I think the person you replied to is suggesting a thermal reflector to reflect radiated heat back to the cans, though simply insulating the area behind the cans would be more effective.
excellent video.... ....keep on sharing.....
good job, I'm saving my cans know to build my first one....thanks for sharing your experience!
Houses that have forced hot air heating nearly always have the vents near the floor because hot air rises. Of course, you want to pull the air from the bottom because colder air sinks. So you should pull the air from one vent on the bottom of the wall or floor and introduce the hotter air at the floor level on the other side of the room. That might be the limiting factor, he might not have enough hose to do keep the 2 ports far enough away from each other.
One idea,one could put energy drink cans(narrow) inside those,also could take an wire and put it around some stick like coil take it off and put it into the cans,that will probably heat up the stuff .Also low cost and low weight.Sorry for lang. mistakes
This guy makes something amazing and all you can do is comment on his clothes. How about a Good Job, or awesome video? What is wrong with people today. They taught us in elementary school that it's not about what clothes you wear. I really liked this video this stuff is very interesting to me.
Nice vidi .......... would have thought that one large hole would work well......... there is a large lip to get the air to tumble through the cans ........ and why use power to push the air in and out of the unit ..... convection should carry it if the flow is not too restricted. But great unit & love the workshop !
BadDL282 Has a good point, but then again 75% of heat is lost from the head ...... i'm sure there are yards of paper coverd out their of this stuff. Regards Bob ( London )
Great informational video. I'm planning to build a smaller one to test - we live in Alaska, so not sure how well it will work. Thanks for the video.
@0urGaia For sure...but I'm fairly satisfied with the amount of energy we can absorb right now...it's pretty damn good. I'd say our biggest problem is the glass. I'm building mine double pane...but even then it's losing a ton of heat...besides going triple pane I don't really know what else we can do. I was thinking of filling the glass with co2 though...
Nice work,but i believe it more effective if you matched airflow through the unit with the port sizes. That is to say, if you need three can diameters to match the diameter of the inlet/outlet, then place 3 cans in parallel throughout the unit and have a channelling effect so that there are only 3 long channels flowing through the box from inlet to outlet. air is then being heated for a longer distance,absorbs more heat &there will be no restrictions in the air flow if the ports match the ducts
Great job. I will try back a wall to do a mirror, abandoning between vertical posts for a 30 mm, I hope anymore to warm up☺
very good video .....thanks
This is GREAT. I love the design. My favorite part was using the beer coosy for safer drilling. Have you tried using MONSTER energy drink cans? They are already black so that would cut out a step for you!
I might try something similar this summer. I'll let you know how it goes!
Thanks again for posting this!
Hi the metal grabs the heat and slows it down. If you just have a box and put a fan on it the box would. Cool down and not make good heat with nothing to trap the heat and hold it. My downspout heater when it gets sun it runs around 110. Steady as long as it gets sun. Rich
@0urGaia True...except when aluminum is painted/powder coated black that makes up for that factor. Too bad copper is just too expensive...black copper would be amazing.
Looks like maybe the hot air disrupts the cold air intake a little (because it points down). Another fella put a sheath on the hot air fan to make sure it circulates the air away from the low cold air uptake fan...
@taylordesignsllc Using cans as duct work inside the box gives more surface area to heat. The more surface area you have for the air to come in contact with, the more heat it will gain. Also, this slows the velocity of the air down, which allows it to gain more heat.
Flattened cans arranged like fins of an aluminum heat sink work better. Uglier but more surface catches more sun, more surface contacts more air.
@sc00b3rt You would be limiting the amount of sunlight depending on the angle of your window with the sun. I have a slanted roof due south, laying a collector on the roof would like be 10x more effective than simply collecting the heat from inside.
That's really great! Well done, I enjoyed your commentry and know how, thankyou.
Nice set-up guy.
Haven't stopped thinking about this since I saw your video last week, was thinking maybe if you made it from cans that cat&dog food come in, they have ripples in them which should increase the surface area and may also slow the air passing through them slightly so it has more time to absorb heat.
As long as America keeps growing clever dudes like this guy, we're gonna be alright!
i built one of these, and here are my thoughts. its a fun project. I've only used it for a couple weeks. i am getting between 130 and 150 coming out of the solar heater and into my house. here is the downside, there is not enough volume of air coming out to add any real heat to a room. i put a fan and the bottom to force more air up and out the top. that did help, but im afraid it is still not enough volume of air to make any meaningful difference in the feel of the room. any ideas from anyone?
wow this is bad ass !!! I just wish it had a few more details for the fans and the solar and the battery. BC that part I have no ideal how to do it. come build me one lol
i am seriously planning on building one ~400 can heater in Finland, i have big old windows so i was planning on using them as they are meant for use outside(plus they were free).
I think the most important thing is to get the "middle space" between the glass and the cans as airtight as possible?
I like the idea and will build one soon. Wondering about the mortar as an adhesive and how well it bonds with aluminum.
good work....
Awesome videos!! Can you make one and explain how you set up you solar panels to charge your batteries. Where did you get them and what will it do? I have always been told you can’t store the energy for solar panels. Any guidance is MUCH appreciated!
Easier way.. get a sheet of Insulfoam from Home Depot. Measure you window and make a box out of the foam ONLY. Paint the inside black and cans. Put a ledge across the bottom. Make hole along top and bottom. Insert a small computer fan run by solar charger. Then place this unit into the windows from the INSIDE of the house. It is very lightweight and can be taken down when summer returns. Produces 120-150F heat.
I would suggest removing it from the door. The sun will heat what it hits inside the house/shop. By blocking the window with the casing, you are loosing what heat would have been generated in that space.
I would move the heater to the right of the door where it is just siding.
Thanks for posting this video, I really like your set up and the work seemed very tight. That's how I like to do things, nice neat and clean! Anyways, I was curious if you or anyone on here knows how well these perform on a cloudy day. I live in upper Michigan and it's often cloudy and overcast. I'm still trying to learn but I haven;t found too much on these solar furnace performance's in the different weather conditions. Maybe someone knows of some good articles. But thanks again!
Great job! I just posted a video of a 90 can panel with an AC fan. I did this as sort of a test before I sunk good money for a big one for the house. I plan on powering the future DC fan with a PV panel and no battery. I tested 7 fans with the panel in the sun and while doing so I got 135°F on the outport when it was 50° outside. Exciting stuff. Keep us posted and I'll do the same..Feels good doesn't it?
I was also thinking the same, but I guess its because if you give out the heat from the top then heat would only stay at sealing level leaving out the lower portion of the floors cold... (thats a guess by the way)
Well done.
@SeanJaves
Yep yep. You are right! The system is so simple
and easy to use too. I build myself in an almost
perfect panel from my first attempt. And now its
been 4months since we're solar powered and
we've gone off the grid completely. Anyway, you
must have interchange the site name. It should be:
GreenEnergyNow.info
The corrugated plastic is called coroplast. I use it in my foam gliders.
Curious about how the heat is transferred into the house/building. Also in the summer how do you prevent the excess heat from entering the home?
I am thinking about making one of these for my 5th wheel camper. I was wanting to know how well it works during the winter and at night.
i can honestly say that it works pretty decent at night surprisingly
I like the door Modification, looks good
@0urGaia Only thing is about co2 is that it could all be bullshit and co2 might do nothing different other than plain old air. I was thinking about car exhaust though....and my other thought was how much heat soil retained...the unit might be heavy as hell...but what if the cans or whatever held soil?...maybe even aspault coating the metal..
@sc00b3rt i was thinking, do you think if we had the cans snake around it would work better? what i mean is, instead of having air go from bottom to top in all the rows of cans..have the air start in one row, when it gets to the top, push the air back down the next row over, and then back up through the following for ever row of cans. that way the air would remain inside of the cans longer. what do you think?
Is there a Supply List and instructions for someone who has never done this before? It may be because I am a woman, but I need a list of what I need to go buy and step by step instructions. If you could direct me to a book that I might buy or tell me who might be able to teach me these things I would be greatly appreciative. Thanks
Water boils at 212 but still evaporates into the air at low temperatures. Lab tests show that the water temps in dishwashers can release the BPA. Find an alternative to pop cans.
Glad to know it will charge a battery, but can you show how to hook up to the battery? I need to see how to hook it up, please.
@boleroinferno The cans give a greater surface area to collect heat versus a flat sheet.
About 6x
Thank you Rich. My only concern would be the residual fumes from the black spray paint. I wonder how it would work if the cans weren't painted?
if you dont paint the cans or paint it bye another colors the effective will low because black colour focus the sun light in it
The paint is on the outside of the cans. The air to your house passes through the inside of the cans. Built properly air from the case shouldn't be passing into your home.
Looks like a great version of a beercan heater...Im in the process of getting off the grid completely, i've got a 2 wind turbines that are almost finished and im looking into a high efficiency solar system that i can build and install as "DIY" as possible...just wondering if you have any suggestions about the solar stuff...Thanks!
I just love that all the cans are beer cans.
That is great and Ithank you for your efforts. Shall try to do sometning similar
Great job! Those were very clear instructions...I can't wait to start my own. I'm curious as to how the thermostat and battery are wired, maybe you could post a video or schematic for this. Thanks.
It's a good video. but I think the design needs better insulation. Plus the way he mounted it isn't really getting the best 🌞.
But I do think what he did was really cool.
Especially if you were to combine it with Earth pipe technology. Like they use with below-ground geothermal greenhouses.
Can you imagine..
All you would need it's just a little bit of solar to keep a house warm during the day and perfectly livable at Night.
Then take the excess energy and put it into a electric car.
put the electric-car potentially on a rail steel on steel gets 90% better efficiency.
300 miles ×90 on rail equals 27000 miles. I mean hell they make carbon fiber cars that actually recharge up to 40 miles per day on normal tire to road conditions.
40 mi * 90 is 3600. and at 100 mph per day it would only go through 2400miles with a power per day. With a remainder of 1200 miles per day.
I'm very curious to know how this went long-term. Any follow-up wisdom?
you should try aluminum foil tape that is used for duct work. you can get it at lowes.
Rich,
very cool ho wlong does it produce warm air seems like it would heat up your thermostat would activate and the fan would circulate the warm air out, leaving you with cooler air is this not the case? seems like you should have a drop in temp
The collector is right smart. Would you get more heat if you cut down the obstructing trees and burned them in a simple wood stove?
You should consider making some panels to go on top of the roof this way it could catch the sun at all possible angels. :D
Great idea! I'm thinking of building one of these for my shed.Thinking of taking the ends off cans and making elbows for the corners so the air has to pass through every can like a snake first,instead of epoxy,using duct or alum. tape painted black .Also thinking of using glass on both top and bottom,and putting that silvery film on the glass that reflects heat mounted backwards on the inside so the heat can't reflect back out of the box.Have you tried any of these ideas before I start my build?
sould be cool having an 18 or 25 cm Computer case fan instead of a fullpower motor to use for the heat transfer
mostly since its on 12 volts and doesnt require that much energy when used
You fell at the last hurdle, Rich! :-( By covering a window (or in this case, a glass door) you've lost the insolation value of the glass. The solar energy that would have entered your home directly through the glass as light now has to heat aluminium, which heats the air, which then enters your home. You'd probably have been better off just laying dark tiles or slate/stone on your floor to soak up the heat.
nagualdesign Has
Glass has almost no insulating value; it's the air trapped between two panes of glass that insulates
He didn't say insulation. He said insolation. It's actually a completely different word
well its been a few years now Rich, how has this solar furnace preformed over the last few years ?
IfingerblastGranny's probably considering he drinks that piss water Bud Light.
thats the guy who made solar heaters from Pop cans,silly in my mind, as i tried doing a solar direct air long ago but its just a Bad idea as when it gets colder and WET from moisture yeah get black mold and its just a waist to have them holes in ur house as it will be way more of a Heat deficite in the long run. I mean all that work to cut Pop cans? how much is a piece of pipe with no little joints from Home depo? was this promoted by the Oil industy bc so much work for a Bad idia
Very cool design idea!
hi I like your video. I was thinking if you made one about 4 times the size of the one you made and put it on a roof and went through your roof and tied it into the plentum of an existing furnace and only ran the fan on your furnace would that work.
this is such a simply cool project! I can't wait to try it!
@0urGaia Steel has a lower thermal conductivity than aluminum. simple fact. Btw..if you want more heat you go the copper route...and if you're rich...try gold...or even better...diamonds.
Cool video and very nice build! It actually looks really nice. Great job.
That was excellent. Thanks for sharing that. I was wondering, also, what can one do for the night time to keep things warm? Would the primary suggestion be to use as much photovoltaic units as possible to charge a large series of batteries, and use an electric heater?
What CAN one do indeed
So does the thermostat close the circuit, turning the fan on at 110 and open the circuit at 90, turning the fan off? I really like the idea of having a simple thermostat like that.
great answer,
Use thermal mass inside the house so that heat can be absorbed by it during day time and slowly realeased after sunset.
i have an idea. im not sure if it would work well but its and idea. so obviously the sun heats the cans and brings warmer air in. now i was thinking for cooling if i made another set of cans in a case and buried it in the ground. then when it was summer, move the fan to push air through the buried cans to bring cooler air in. sorta like a geothermal for air. might not work well but its an idea, and very cheap. any thoughts?
@richallen-isn't there window film available that would allow heat to enter but not escape? I think that would improve the efficiency of this unit. BTW, love the idea. How many would it take to heat a 24x50 ft. one-story Massachusetts home if they were mounted on the roof?
I think these are very cool. But why the fans and batteries? Won't convection naturally move the air up through the heater?
Super cool way.
@ihaveaverybadcold just black high temp paint like for a grill you can get at lowes or wal mart
Would you mind telling me what kind of a bit is it that you used to drill the holes in the 2/4 in the bottom with, and the cans? Is there a special kind of silicon suggested for gluing the cans together? Thanks and great work!