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MN Renovator · 01-01-12, 11:44 AM

I'm not making sense of any of this. There is CO2 in the cavity in front of the air that you want in your building? That CO2 won't cause the air behind the plate to move.

In fact I think the plate is complicating things and shouldn't be there at all. I don't see any reason why you would need or want anything simpler than a large black surface at the back, a plate of glass on the front, some insulation covering the outside surface to minimize losses, a way to block airflow when there isn't enough sun to create heat, and a passageway that snakes the indoor air through so it flows past the entire hot surface to absorb its heat and then pass it to the inside by a fan or blower.

By adding the separator between them, the side facing the glass will be warmer than the side that need the heat transferred to it making the unit keep more heat on the glass side instead of just passing air through it. This is where the aluminum can heater guys are making their mistake, the sun hits the black painted cans and then it heats the area between the cans and the glass while cold indoor air passes through the cans and needs to wait for thermal transfer to actually pull the heat into the cans. Remove the separator and anyone with some wood, good water sealing paint, caulking, a fan, wood working skills, a piece of scrap glass, a drill, an insulated flap attached to some insulated tubing to bring the heat into the house and you've got a space heater that likely won't cost you even $100. I'm trying to find a piece of scrap glass or maybe a few that is as close as to size of a 4x8 sheet of plywood without going over, price is right style. I wonder if my neighbors and cars driving by will be upset by a solar heater mounted in the lawn visible from the road.

As far as I can tell, the cheapest method of solar heating is to do exactly this, build a DIY solar air heater. Even if it doesn't work as well as a professional heater it will easily pay for itself if done with scrap materials and maybe a purchased fan, short duct, and some plywood and a few short 2x4's cut into 2x2's.

01-01-12, 11:44 AM	#2
MN Renovator Less usage=Cheaper bills Join Date: Nov 2010 Location: Minneapolis, MN Posts: 939 Thanks: 41 Thanked 116 Times in 90 Posts	I'm not making sense of any of this. There is CO2 in the cavity in front of the air that you want in your building? That CO2 won't cause the air behind the plate to move. In fact I think the plate is complicating things and shouldn't be there at all. I don't see any reason why you would need or want anything simpler than a large black surface at the back, a plate of glass on the front, some insulation covering the outside surface to minimize losses, a way to block airflow when there isn't enough sun to create heat, and a passageway that snakes the indoor air through so it flows past the entire hot surface to absorb its heat and then pass it to the inside by a fan or blower. By adding the separator between them, the side facing the glass will be warmer than the side that need the heat transferred to it making the unit keep more heat on the glass side instead of just passing air through it. This is where the aluminum can heater guys are making their mistake, the sun hits the black painted cans and then it heats the area between the cans and the glass while cold indoor air passes through the cans and needs to wait for thermal transfer to actually pull the heat into the cans. Remove the separator and anyone with some wood, good water sealing paint, caulking, a fan, wood working skills, a piece of scrap glass, a drill, an insulated flap attached to some insulated tubing to bring the heat into the house and you've got a space heater that likely won't cost you even $100. I'm trying to find a piece of scrap glass or maybe a few that is as close as to size of a 4x8 sheet of plywood without going over, price is right style. I wonder if my neighbors and cars driving by will be upset by a solar heater mounted in the lawn visible from the road. As far as I can tell, the cheapest method of solar heating is to do exactly this, build a DIY solar air heater. Even if it doesn't work as well as a professional heater it will easily pay for itself if done with scrap materials and maybe a purchased fan, short duct, and some plywood and a few short 2x4's cut into 2x2's. Last edited by MN Renovator; 01-01-12 at 11:47 AM..