Solar Air Heater
UPDATE 11/24/12
Check the video and pictures out HERE
I’m a solar heater junkie. My prototype looks like crap but the science and data makes it a winner when it comes to solar heating. You can find lots of videos on the subject on You Tube regarding soda can solar heaters and such and I have to give the inventors of that theory on gaining free heat from the sun credit for a great idea. I don’t go to meetings for my solar heater addiction but I love the idea of free heat from the sun. My addiction is making the theory better and more accessible to the masses. Thus, I have been working on a box geared more towards the elderly and people on fixed incomes that can move a heating unit from one window in the morning to the next in the afternoon depending on where the sun is coming into their home. Having a fixed unit that just faces south has never been something I have ever been fond of. Permanent installation either. Why not move the unit as the sun moves if you are at home anyway? Why not have a system built into the solar heater that stores the heat longer when cloud cover comes in? Why not build a box that can not only be placed in a window but just moved to a sunny spot of sun that is already coming into your home? Place it by a slider door, on a living room coffee table, wherever the sun is shining into the house. If it is getting full sun then our heater will give free heat! Free Solar powered heat for you home that will supplement your existing heating system.
As Emeril says, can we kick it up a notch? My box is a simple two foot by two foot wooden box with a bunch of systems inside that retain heat and amplify heat when the sun is partly clouded. Testing on my unit and tweeking of the unit have been going on for weeks and it still is in the testing phases but I think it is a marketable solar heater design. I’m trying to keep the cost to consumers below $400 retail but the parts needed to make it totally renewable energy are high with metal pricing fluctuating daily.
Testing today in the early hours between nine AM and eleven AM facing the morning sun (East) resulted in significant results that I am very pleased with. High atmospheric clouds came and went and the unit worked like I thought it would. The backup systems of the solar heater with no moving parts or outside source of energy other than the sun to retain heat cycled in and out was amazing. Results below are after the unit was heated just by the sun for twenty minutes with high atmospheric clouds intermittently.
Testing results for 4/30/2011 Between 9:00 AM and 11:00 AM CST
Average ambient air temperature: 65.83 F
Average Air Exhaust Heat after reaching 110F Temperature: 125.99 F
Average Heat Retention System Temperature after Reaching 100 F: 113.6F
Average Heat Gain After reaching 110F ambient air temperature: 60.18F
Maximum heat gain from ambient air to heat exhaust: 70.2F
What does this mean to you? The average temperature of the heated air coming out once the unit is heated is 125.99 degrees F based on today's testing results and that is free heat from a two foot by two foot box that can be moved from room to room. Give the unit one half hour to heat up in full sun and it is pumping out the heat for free.
What I find very interesting is the cycles of the air to heat retention systems cycling plus and minus of one another in opposite directions. One goes up and the other goes down in temperature. New science results with the data for me to experiment with. I’m having a blast with it. The applications beyond just heating air are enormous! Pick a topic that relates to providing heat to a home and it works in a simple little box.
Check back soon to see when we are actually selling my toy. Free heat is good. Email us if you would like more information. Papamoka (at) hotmail (dot)(com).
Legal disclaimer: This unit will not heat your entire home but it is a kick ass supplement to whatever heating system you have when the sun is hitting the unit directly.
Papamoka
Labels: Home Heating, Renewable Energy, renewable heat, solar heated air, Solar Heater, solar heating, solar hot air, Solar Power, solar window box
posted by Papamoka at
8:22 PM
2 Comments:
What is the power consumption to generate that heat? Is it a steady generation? I am a non technical laymen, so dummy your answer up. For example, a portable AC plugged into a 15 Amp circuit will almost max it out when the compressor is running (or whatever gives me all that cool air). However, when it is just running the fan, power consumption is low. I used a watt meter to test this.
I assume with your device, I am exchanging some electricity for my heat. Is that assumption false?
Also, compare this to a space heater designed to heat a small room.
One other thing: space heaters have fast-acting designs and slower, but quieter and stronger radiator designs. If you had to compare your solar heating square, which one is it most closely related to?
If you respond with anything technical, it will be over my head and I will get mad and call you dirty names.
The beauty of this solar air heating unit is that it uses NO electricity to generate the heat John. Thus your assumption is false. I'm working on a second solar heating system with a plug in fan that is optional, the same low voltage fan that an average computer fan would use, with a cost of $3 to $5 dollars per month.
The solar heater as it is now is similar to a home heating duct work system but the force used to push out the air is purely thermal energy from the sun where hot air always wants to rise. The hot air coming out of a vent duct in a home is around 160F, this unit, after one half hour of sun is pushing out 120F to 130F hot air that is only heated by the power of the sun. There are no moving parts.
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