A simple solar heater that is cheap and easy to make. When there is direct sun on the unit it produces heat like a hair dryer.
According to the creator it produces a stream of air of around 120 degrees.
Some suggested tips for improvement:
– Make sure your black paint is matte so it doesn’t reflect the sun.
– The air moves by convection, however, you could add a small computer fan on the outlet and wire it to a 12 volt solar cell the unit to control the air rate.
– The intake size could be adjusted to control air rate as well. Making the intake smaller will give the air time to heat up while passing through the dryer ducting but it will slow down the rate of air flow. You can run it hot and slower or with more air and not as warm.
– A flat plate could be added between the intake tube and inside wall up to a little pulley inside the house. You could then adjust the air rate like this as well and have an on/off option.
– Add insulation to help maintain heat running through the system. Could prove vital for very cold areas.
You are incorrect Ryan Dierolf, This will work no matter what the outside temp, and on a sunless day it just doesn’t work as well. I works with covection so on a sunless day or at night I does nothing.
Brandon Morey…. garage heaters…. ??
To store the hot air for cold nights simply just place air into sandwich bags during the day. Use at least 1,500 bags. When you get cold just open the bags one at a time until desired warmth.
Dan , will you make some of these for our house pretty please?
Very cool
Sounds good
sounds great but where I am winter days are in the minus temp and nights colder
Jay says:
“Some kind of heat sink. Feed the output of the solar furnace to an inside wall of hollow cinder block with the holes fed to recycle the heat. Small solar fan to circulate during the day, shut off at night. during the day the hollow brick wall heats up, then gives up its heat at night.”
From: http://www.truthandaction.org/simple-solar-furnace-under-50/comment-page-4/#comment-553555
Im leavin in march to come down there
I like it