I've been slowly cutting the materials to size for this project. I came up with a cookie cutter way of cutting all the holes in the manifolds where the absorber tubes connect. I found a metal can of the right diameter and sawed the end off so I can twist it down thru the foam board and remove a plug. It works fairly well. I have to use a blade to finish the cut on the foil on the other side. Here are some practice cuts.Attachment 151

And the tube fits well.Attachment 152

I got a little more done over the weekend. I need to finish it to make room for my saturn sc2 project. I don't know if I will get time to do a wind power project for a while :rolleyes:. I'm making sure I finish this solar panel before getting too involved with the car. The panel is farther along than the picture shows. I have almost half of the tubes stretched and cut to length with some paint on them. The side insulation is installed too.

here are the 2 glass panels I'm planning to use (not the smaller shower door). Also the completed tube manifold pieces.

Any updates on this project? I'm pretty anxious to see how this all works out! :)

I haven't been getting much done on it. I did move it to a more convienient spot. I have all the tubes roughly cut to length and painted. I think the thing that's slowing me down is the manifold front metal. I bought a coil of roof flashing that is wide enough to use, I just don't know how I want to attach it yet. I also cut the 2 tube manifold pieces in half lengthwise to make it easier to set the tubes into place on assembly. It's hard to get motivated on a heating project when it's warm outside.

I should just get it done, summer sun will help me test it.

Here's an overly compressed picture of some progress I made on the panel.
Here I'm basically dry fitting all the parts ignore the baffle placement in the manifolds. I plan to spray more paint on some of the tubes. I need to do some testing after I install the manifold front covers and hold the glass down to the front. I will be deciding where to put the inlet and outlet as well as how many tubes to run in a parallel circuit by moving the baffles around in the manifolds. I ended up buying a 12ft piece of aluminum material that is flat to use for the manifold front covers. It should be alote easier to install than coiled flashing.

Wooo, its coming together! :) Still anxious to see how this works. What are the dimensions of the box?

it's about 65" x 67"

I will finish this someday :o.

It's pretty close to done I just need to seal it up enough for testing and get the glass retained. During testing, I will decide on a fan system and thermal controls. After that I need to decide real hard about drilling a couple big holes thru the shell of my house :eek:. I think that has been my biggest hang-up, besides having too many other things going on. I may end up using a couple of windows for the intake and exhaust.

I used a Mother Earth News article to design and build a solar air heater at my house. It took me over a year, due to having too many projects at once. Plus, I over-engineered it to death. I stuck it in the window (~45 degrees outside) and in about 30 minutes it was putting out very low flow, but 105 degree air. Decided it needed a solar powered fan. Didn't buy the fan. Didn't cover the glass when summer came. Did look at melted solar air heater in mid-summer.

You might consider having a way to cover it in the hotter months, I know I wish I'd considered that. :o