Quote:
Originally Posted by TheyCallMeDave
If your attic vent openings were no larger than about 12x12", then you could put on some regular air registers with a manual adjustable damper as integral , that you could open and close using something long from the ground . But, i doubt it would help that much. The solution would be to cut out a large section of roof and fit a Solar Collector over the opening on the southside of the roof keeping it covered up in the summer months....but now we are getting a little outrageous for most people. lol...
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Hi,
Don't know if you caught this system by Randy:
An Invisible Solar Attic Space Heating Collector
He has basically built a collector using the roof surface as the absorber, and the truss rafter bays and the air channels for the collector.
He has a supply plenum along the bottom and an return plenum along the top -- air from his living room is circulated into the supply plenum, up the collector, and back out the return plenum to his living room.
The performance is still not going to be as good as a glazed collector, but it looks like it might do pretty well in some climates. One could also glaze over the top of the shingles with something like SunTuf polycarbonate glazing. Shingle life might be an issue, but when they wear out you could replace them with a "real" metal roof
There were some comments on fire safety, but I think these could be addressed as suggested.
It would be a really nice way to integrate a collector into a metal roof.
Also, this one is pretty interesting:
IWillTry.org » Build a Solar Attic
I really think that working out a good way to integrate solar collection with attic construction could pay some huge dividends -- it could potentially add almost nothing to the cost of a house, but supply significant heat?
Gary