.
Forum member Madmike recently joined the forum with the announcement that he was just finishing up making a solar hot air panel
The panel is 45 inches wide by 90 inches tall and 4 inches deep. It sports 16 rows of pop / soda cans that are 15 cans long for a total of 240 cans. The frame is made of 1x4s and a 1/2" plywood backing. The inside of it is lined with 3/4" foil faced foam. The glazing is a sheet of polycarbonate (lexan).
To punch holes in the cans he used a 1-1/2″ hole saw and a drill press on the bottom of the cans. For the top of the cans he simply took a tin snips and bent the fins at an angle to help create some turbulence which will promote heat transfer to the air.
The panel is still getting tweaked now with a larger and higher flow fan to get the outlet temperature down a bit and increase the efficiency (less heat lost to the environment). To control the fan he is simply using a snap disc thermal switch that turns on at 110F and turns off at 90F. To prevent backflow through the collector at night he is using a dryer damper.
For more details on the project see Madmike’s forum thread.
Welcome to EcoRenovator! If you like the site and want to get automatic updates, check out the RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!
Related posts:
