Rumplestiltskin
New Member
I am a total noob so I want to start small and run a few tests. I sketched out a very small system and I wanted to run it by some people (here) who undoubtedly, know 1000% more than I.
The system would consist of the following:
- DIY solar air heater about 4' x 3' with maybe 2.5" of airgap between the front glass and the inside insulation. The simplest design has a series of back-&-forth channels which takes in air from a hole in the rear bottom and pushes it out a hole in the rear top. (The performance seems similar to the ones with internal metal channels so KISS.) YouTube videos show the exhaust air reaching 140-150f so that should be plenty. Not a lot of CFM possible here. Off the cuff calcs indicate less than 2.5 cubic feet of air contained in the heater at any given moment. So let's assume that a small 5V computer fan pushes the air at 4.5CFM. What could I possibly heat from this? Certainly nothing at night when I'd really need the heat.
But what about crafting an insulated enclosure with a 55-gal drum of water (with some anti-bacterial agent) inside and looping the exhaust heat of the solar heater into that enclosure and then back into the heater air intake? Presumably I'd get 7 hours of nearly-140f air circulating around that drum. At the appropriate time in the PM, the solar heater fan is turned off (as it's producing colder air than the drum's water) and another fan circulates air from the enclosure into the house and then back into the enclosure where (presumably) the house's cooler air is warmed by passing around the drum and back into the house. The "inside" and "outside" systems get switched (manually at first but by thermostatic control once I know if this works). (There's a workshop attached to the house where the drum/enclosure would reside and, coincidentally, the outside wall of the workshop faces south so the solar heating system could be kept compact. Likewise, the drum/enclosure and the area of the house where the heat would be needed at night (main bathroom/bedroom) share a common wall to the workshop.
So someone please tell me if I blowing smoke up my own USB port or if this has a decent chance of succeeding. Thanks very much for your patience.
The system would consist of the following:
- DIY solar air heater about 4' x 3' with maybe 2.5" of airgap between the front glass and the inside insulation. The simplest design has a series of back-&-forth channels which takes in air from a hole in the rear bottom and pushes it out a hole in the rear top. (The performance seems similar to the ones with internal metal channels so KISS.) YouTube videos show the exhaust air reaching 140-150f so that should be plenty. Not a lot of CFM possible here. Off the cuff calcs indicate less than 2.5 cubic feet of air contained in the heater at any given moment. So let's assume that a small 5V computer fan pushes the air at 4.5CFM. What could I possibly heat from this? Certainly nothing at night when I'd really need the heat.
But what about crafting an insulated enclosure with a 55-gal drum of water (with some anti-bacterial agent) inside and looping the exhaust heat of the solar heater into that enclosure and then back into the heater air intake? Presumably I'd get 7 hours of nearly-140f air circulating around that drum. At the appropriate time in the PM, the solar heater fan is turned off (as it's producing colder air than the drum's water) and another fan circulates air from the enclosure into the house and then back into the enclosure where (presumably) the house's cooler air is warmed by passing around the drum and back into the house. The "inside" and "outside" systems get switched (manually at first but by thermostatic control once I know if this works). (There's a workshop attached to the house where the drum/enclosure would reside and, coincidentally, the outside wall of the workshop faces south so the solar heating system could be kept compact. Likewise, the drum/enclosure and the area of the house where the heat would be needed at night (main bathroom/bedroom) share a common wall to the workshop.
So someone please tell me if I blowing smoke up my own USB port or if this has a decent chance of succeeding. Thanks very much for your patience.