solar heat from pop cans

[Nuggetsowner:)]

HI guys! Once again it has been awhile since I have been able to check in and I have missed alot!

I have been looking at this thread and am interested in building one of these panels. With DH and a teenage boy in the house we definately have enough soda cans to give it a try. I also have most of the other materials on hand and could get a small solar panel. So I think it would be cost effective to at least check it out.

Here is the one question I have about the whole process. How do I vent the heat into the chicken coop or possibly dog house, I haven't yet decided, when it is finished. Does the small computer fan push the heat through the ducting? Do you run the ducting over that fan? I guess that is where I am confused. Maybe I am just missing something and once someone points it out to me I will be like DUH but right now I just don't see ti. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks. I would really like to try this.

 

[roosmom]

I think the small fan is on a thermostat right at the frame of the panel. It should turn on when it gets up to a certain temperature and blow the air thru the duct into what ever you are venting into. My thought, could be wrong.

 

[dragonshiner]

OMG! This would be so cool! Or, so warm. I have quite a few of the supplies already and could probably scrounge up the rest before next winter to give it a try.
I live in NE Wisconsin so it's pretty bitter up here in the winters and heating our farm house with propane is a total sore. A little tweaking and tapping or heating guy friend for some help and maybe, just maybe we could subvert the heating bill a little bit.

 

[patandchickens]

For whatever it's worth, I have something vaguely similar going right now on the chicken building. It is a 4x7 (footprint) run, lean-to against the front of the building at about a 60 degree angle so that it joins the building at about 8' up and covers one window. On sunny days I open the pophole into the run and also the window, and air thermosiphons very effectively thru it (cold air goes out pophole into floor level of run; hot air from the top of the run goes into the kennel). It would be even more effective, I think, if the window were at the *very* top of the lean-to and were larger. There are no popcans involved, just the medium-blue painted metal siding of the building. I have to manually open and close the window and popdoor though.

With our current daylength I can get literally 8+ C of heating out of it by the end of the afternoon -- that is, if the building starts out at 0 C, it will be 8 C or higher by the end of the day if I leave the other chicken runs closed (it is a big building with few chickens, so I can do this when weather warrants). On a comparable sunny day withOUT the window and popdoor open the building only goes up 1-2 C. Mind, back around New Years I was getting only 2-4 C heating out of it, because of the lower sun and shorter days. Still every little bit counts.

And btw, this is a 15x40' building we're talking about, being noticeably heated by a 4x7 lean-to *not* optimized for solar performance.

edited to add the *right* pic this time:

So I would say that the whole popcan heater concept is definitely worth looking into for anyone wanting to bump a building's temperature up during the day.

The two main limiting factors: a) the top of the collector (where the air goes into the building) has to be a bit lower than the inside ceiling of the building, but preferably the collector should span as much of the floor-to-ceiling space as possible; and b) you need to either manually operate the two openings or rig up some automatic system, either electrical-with-thermostat or I have read about systems with a light plastic sheet that sucks back against a grate when the 'heater' air is too cool. Otherwise the whole thing runs in reverse all night and *cools* the house

JME,

Pat

 

[Im4dabirds]

New here and been reading this post. I saw it on BYC and was wondering if you could use those vents that they install in crawl spaces that automatically open at a certain temp and close at a certain temp. Not sure how they work but we had them on our old house. Anyone familiar with them?

 

[noobiechickenlady]

I've been eyeing these things for a while. Actually planning on making the heat collector for a solar food dehydrator like this.

Check out this link for more detailed instructions
http://napenergia.freeweb.hu/gyak/szp/sztgyi_en.htm

Another method
http://www.builditsolar.com/Projects/SpaceHeating/GregAircol/AirCol.htm
And yet another. This is the one I am thinking about building.
http://h1.ripway.com/glensolar/GlensSolarHeater.htm

There is simply tons of information out there about harvesting heat from the sun. Its easy to do with a basic understanding of thermosyphon principles. Ever so much easier than building your own solar electric panel. Heck, there are probably more instructions here, if I get a chance to look for them!