anyone use a solar heater for your house?

[motherofmolly]

we are going to build a solar heater for our house. anyone here have one?

my dh's friend build one and gave us the plans to it. alumimum cans (about 300), 2 x 4's, plywood, and plexiglass...and a furnace metal vent for the vent into the house. he has a fan for the house that you can turn on and off to let the air in. he heated his house last year on it.

but, looking on the internet, i see many versions of the solar heater...some that just use convection (heat rises) and no fan or cans and just a metal screen....

i would think you could find salvaged material for one and do it just as nice (use salvaged window glass instead of plexiglass, a fan from an old computer instead of the nicer one)....the plans we have say it will be $200 to build using new materials....but i see ones on the internet that salvage and are less than $100.

pretty much you build a window that collects the sun rays. you can pull the bottom air from the outside or from a tube connected to your basement. the air then heats quickly and then rises out the top vent (fan if you want) and then this is vented in your house. dh's friend says he gets heat from 9am to 5pm that will keep his house at 80 degrees.

i dont have a big house, but if i could cut an extra $100 a month from the heating bill this winter for 5 months...that would be a nice cut...and my sister is going to do it and see what she can cut..she has a bigger house.

[Sherri1480]

This is a very interesting idea. I think we will give it a try too.

[shelleyf]

Hi I am interested in learning about this. How long does it take to build one?

[joshmamabear]

DH made something like this with some modifications to track the sun and increase heat collected.

Our gas bill for last winter was decreased by about 65%; we don't have a huge house and we saw/felt the savings instantly . DH is a DIY kind of guy that can turn scraps into treasure.

He also made an odor buster for the bathroom using scraps from throw-away vacuum cleaners to suck odor so no more masking of odors with the Glade smellies

[motherofmolly]

Solar Heater

this is one i saw that is your basic no frills great for a garage one. but, it can give you an idea of the concept of what is happening with the air (air flows in the bottom, up the contraption, and then out the top by convection= hot air rises). now this one could be made to get hotter by say using black paint on the inside to attract more heat.

the one my dh has plans for is a similar contraption, except it is more of a 10 ft tall window filled with 300 aluminum cans. the cans have 3 holes drilled in them on the top and bottom with a drill press..these are then stacked with the holes matched up inside the window. then everything is spray painted with a black furnace type paint (high heat paint) and then plexiglass (or a glass window) is put on top. you can either lean the window on the south side of the house or give it a standing frame at an angle to attract more sun.

at the bottom of the window is the "air intake"..you can draw from your basement )pvc or tubing put in a basement window or thru a drilled hole) or just draw air from the outside (screen over the intake tube so no critters get in)...the air will flow up and get hot and then come out the top via a out take (metal furnace/water heater tubing) and into the house...

we plan on using a kitchen window as my windows slide down or up...make a window covering with a place for the tube to come in. there is a outlet close to this window to plug the fan in (the only part requiring electricity). the fan will help bring in more air..and you can also shut it off and not bring in as much.

a basic window can be made by using salvaged wood and glass (if you cant spring for the plexiglass right now..but have extra glass on hand in case it breaks)....construction sites are great for extra wood (ask) and other things that can be used. you would need to make the window fairly air tight so the air heats up....or another good place is garbage picking (yup it can be done)

if you dont have a drill press for the holes, i would think you could leave out the aluminum cans and just paint the inside of your made window with black paint to attract the sun to it.

post anymore ideas you would see to make it easier to do or links to solar heaters.

[motherofmolly]

Hi I am interested in learning about this. How long does it take to build one?

once you have your materials, you could have it built in a day.

we have a smaller house (main floor 5 rooms, basement with 3 rooms and attic play room) and would need only one of these "windows" to give us day heat. and at night maybe keep the heat at 68 so if the main living area gets below 68 then the heat will kick on....i figure if it gets too hot on that floor, i will open the basement or the attic door to spread the heat around.

this would work for people that live in trailers (would need a smaller one) or bigger houses (my sister plans on doing one and she is going to start with one and see where it takes her)

i have to add, that the window needs to be on the south side of the house to get the most sun. and the intake needs to be close.

brand new materials would make the window with cans about $200....but i would think you could salvage alot and get it for $100 or waaaayy less than that...even if it is all free stuff, it would be worth it just to see if it will work for you and cut your bill. my friend gets 80 degrees inside his house during the day up til about 5pm and then it starts to decrease from there as the sun isnt out.

[434Teresa]

This is a great ideal, maybe we need to try for my bill runs $500 in the winter sure do hate that.

[ScrappyDoo]

Did you actually build this????

[motherofmolly]

yup, it did put off some nice heat. we used it at the old house. we brought it to the new house but have no where to hook it up to the house without drilling in a wall due to where the sun is.

but, once we build a building, we are going to hook it up to it. or the chicken coop!

[CW&M Mom]

We don't have a house that it would really work but it looks cool! Our south windows are the first floor are bay windows (which I wouldn't yank out), and then the other's are in a covered porch area. That area would actually be a great spot, in the house...except it just wouldn't get enough sunlight...because it's covered.