Rednecktek
Solar Wizard
So inspired by another thread, and honestly a little rum, I had a noodle to bounce off everyone.
My boss has a couple of the coil-of-tubing-in-a-box solar water heaters for his pool in Cali and I'm wondering if something similar couldn't be set up to keep a place warm-ish when unattended without having to spend $$UberMoney on batteries and system to support a mini-split or the like. Here's my thought with a krappy MSPaint sketch of what I'm thinking:
A small 12v or 24v system, doesn't need to be much...
A couple of the tube-in-a-box solar water heaters...
A coil in a box or repurposed radiator from a car would be better...
A DC fan, maybe from a small car that uses electric fans anyways...
A DC water pump...
A few gallons of antifreeze mix...
A DC thermostat...
A photocell so it only pumps water when the sun is out warming up the antifreeze...
Put the heaters outside in the sun, pipe them to the pump, pump goes inside to the radiator, out of the radiator and back to the boxes outside. Fill the whole thing with antifreeze mix so it'll stay liquid even at $StupidCold temps. Set up the DC thermostat to turn on the pump AND the fan at say 50F and shut off at 75F. When it gets cold inside the pump and fan kick on pumping the sun heated antifreeze through the radiator and into the house. When it gets warm inside the fan and pump shut off so you don't cook yourself in summer. The photocell would only allow the pump to run when the sun is out and warming up the antifreeze so it's not blowing cold air around inside all night.
Thoughts?
My boss has a couple of the coil-of-tubing-in-a-box solar water heaters for his pool in Cali and I'm wondering if something similar couldn't be set up to keep a place warm-ish when unattended without having to spend $$UberMoney on batteries and system to support a mini-split or the like. Here's my thought with a krappy MSPaint sketch of what I'm thinking:
A small 12v or 24v system, doesn't need to be much...
A couple of the tube-in-a-box solar water heaters...
A coil in a box or repurposed radiator from a car would be better...
A DC fan, maybe from a small car that uses electric fans anyways...
A DC water pump...
A few gallons of antifreeze mix...
A DC thermostat...
A photocell so it only pumps water when the sun is out warming up the antifreeze...
Put the heaters outside in the sun, pipe them to the pump, pump goes inside to the radiator, out of the radiator and back to the boxes outside. Fill the whole thing with antifreeze mix so it'll stay liquid even at $StupidCold temps. Set up the DC thermostat to turn on the pump AND the fan at say 50F and shut off at 75F. When it gets cold inside the pump and fan kick on pumping the sun heated antifreeze through the radiator and into the house. When it gets warm inside the fan and pump shut off so you don't cook yourself in summer. The photocell would only allow the pump to run when the sun is out and warming up the antifreeze so it's not blowing cold air around inside all night.
Thoughts?
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