The warm summer months never last forever. Soon it’s time to look for a way to bring a little extra warmth into the home and this simple solar heater is a great project to do just that. It’s made of metal cans, steel or aluminum, and can produce a surprisingly strong and consistent airflow upwards of 140F.
Even on a heavy snow day you’re looking at somewhere around 75-85F.
Best of all, this simple project requires just a few common parts and many of them can simply be re-purposed from your regular recycling. Watch the project come together in the fully-detailed video on the NEXT PAGE:
My suggestion… if using pop cans, save all the same brand… also, find your glass first, and build the box to fit the glass. I made both of these mistakes… my heater is still not done… after I figured out how to solve the problem of the cans stacks being different lengths, I still have not been able to locate a used piece of glass as big as I built my box… and a new piece of glass/plexus or anything is pretty pricey! But I know these things work! Just plan ahead!
What makes the fan turn and does each can have holes in the botton?
^johnnie garage door Johnson check lowes or Home Depot for clearance shower doors . Big glass cheap price.
^^ Steve stockwell holes top and bottom. Fan is generally a computer fan attached to a small solar panel
He forgot to mention he made this on a 100 degree day in the summer. Show me the results at 10 degrees with limited sun with snow on the ground in the dead of winter. Won’t work!
Steve, you are a Debbie downer. Hahah. Even if you are right.
Even if it works part of the time it would save on propane costs. Does the fan plug in then?
I watched this just this week and can’t wait to try it!
As a heating professional familiar with solar this a good concept but the physics are not promising.
Water is a much better medium to transfer heat. Most professionally made solar collectors with water in them produce about 1000 btu per square foot PER DAY.
Given that this will just not produce much. A 10×10 room in an average house needs about 3000 btu PER HOUR in cold weather
Doing some rough math with my local utility rates this unit might generate enough heat to replace about 1 therm of natural gas which costs about $1.25 In about 5 weeks with 5 hours of sun per day. To do this assuming a 15 watt fan you will use about 30 cents worth of electricity which nets you under $1 PER MONTH.
This also assumes you seal this unit up perfectly where it comes into the home and you block it off at night so you don’t incur any air infiltration during the other 19 hours per day.
Just not worth it in my opinion.
7:48
Tony Shouler