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MN Renovator · 09-06-11, 11:58 AM

This seems super simple and I find it hard for it to not help a little bit and couldn't find anyone trying this, probably because it is fairly obvious but I'll post anyway because I'd like it to work the best that something like this possibly can.

I don't have much southern glass on my house, which is great to keep the A/C bill down in the summer but for the winter I'm not getting much heat through the windows. The design of my house doesn't really lend itself to well to change this either unless I wanted to tear a window off of the east side of my house to put it on the south side, I can't really just add a southern window and call it good and that has high cost, planning, etc too.

What I want to do is to maximize the heat I get out of these 1.5 foot(glass width) octagon shaped windows in the master bedroom, which is the most important room to heat for me. What I'd like to do is to hang something black from the ceiling in front of the window but how do I maximize the heat from something black?

I was thinking of getting a thick wool black fabric that is big enough to capture the sun as it sweeps across the sky, but also place it so its not too far away to where I'd need something that spans the room.

Is fabric the best for this? If not, what would be better?
Do I want something thick or thin?
Would adding a small low powered fan blowing on the material help get me more heat out? Is there a maximum temperature where it will settle at?

I don't think I'll get a ton of heat from something like this and I'm considering making a black drape for the west facing windows of the house to catch the evening sun before night comes with a gap wide enough to allow for it to clear the air-sealing window plastic and allow for natural convection to hopefully carry some of that heat into the room. What do you guys think? Worst case, its a failed trial of buying and cutting up a cheap wool blanket for these octagon windows and black bedsheets for the other western windows but I don't see how this would fail, might just be a long payback period but I don't think so.

09-06-11, 11:58 AM	#1
MN Renovator Less usage=Cheaper bills Join Date: Nov 2010 Location: Minneapolis, MN Posts: 939 Thanks: 41 Thanked 116 Times in 90 Posts	Indoor black sheet heating? This seems super simple and I find it hard for it to not help a little bit and couldn't find anyone trying this, probably because it is fairly obvious but I'll post anyway because I'd like it to work the best that something like this possibly can. I don't have much southern glass on my house, which is great to keep the A/C bill down in the summer but for the winter I'm not getting much heat through the windows. The design of my house doesn't really lend itself to well to change this either unless I wanted to tear a window off of the east side of my house to put it on the south side, I can't really just add a southern window and call it good and that has high cost, planning, etc too. What I want to do is to maximize the heat I get out of these 1.5 foot(glass width) octagon shaped windows in the master bedroom, which is the most important room to heat for me. What I'd like to do is to hang something black from the ceiling in front of the window but how do I maximize the heat from something black? I was thinking of getting a thick wool black fabric that is big enough to capture the sun as it sweeps across the sky, but also place it so its not too far away to where I'd need something that spans the room. Is fabric the best for this? If not, what would be better? Do I want something thick or thin? Would adding a small low powered fan blowing on the material help get me more heat out? Is there a maximum temperature where it will settle at? I don't think I'll get a ton of heat from something like this and I'm considering making a black drape for the west facing windows of the house to catch the evening sun before night comes with a gap wide enough to allow for it to clear the air-sealing window plastic and allow for natural convection to hopefully carry some of that heat into the room. What do you guys think? Worst case, its a failed trial of buying and cutting up a cheap wool blanket for these octagon windows and black bedsheets for the other western windows but I don't see how this would fail, might just be a long payback period but I don't think so.