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:
I looked at other videos and made this video of something other people did before me. In case you dont understand, this is not new but its cool…..kinda like having sex with an ex.
Did a similar project with my late, great father-in-law in Wyoming….8×10 Ft. Box constructed with 2×6 lumber,,,.corrugated galvanized metal with beer can spacers covered with clear plexigl$#%&!@*….hooked to his wood-fired furnace with a blower and thermostat…in 1981….
I am FOR anything handmade that saves a person money. I saw a video about how a young teenage boy from somewhere out west, maybe NewMexico, built one to heat his trailer at night for he and his disabled parent. That was several years ago.
Not bad but it makes 140 on a hot sunny day when u don’t need heat I’d imagine it doesn’t do so good when it’s cold and u need it
What makes the fan work?
I also made one 4’×8′ or of arizona tea cans. It worked really well. But the fan i had was too powerful so it cooled down too quickly.
Try this using 55 gallon barrels
to heat your business. See reaction of city planners!
A small solar panel to run the fan would complete this treasure!
Automatic heat whenever the sun shines.
Cool experiment. Temp readings alone aren’t relevant as they will be manipulated by air flow. Heat transfer is the target. What is the calculated BTU output at the conditioned space? This would be interesting to know.
I suppose you need a lot of sun hours for this to work well.