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Old 05-19-09, 12:00 PM   #5
Otto
Lurking Renovator
 
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Or, if you just want to heat up some air, look into using flat panels made of Coroplast. That's the stuff realtors and politicians use for signs, a plastic equivalent of corrugated cardboard, with hollow channels called flutes. ~1/2" thickness probably best, for ease of air circulation. Comes in various colors, including black, or you could paint a white one flat black. After an election, get 4 X 8 panels free from defeated politicians. Make a manifold out of PVC pipe and attach at each end. Point it at the sun and tilt one end up, so natural circulation takes place as the air inside heats up and rises, to be circulated into your living space. Cheap. Light. Efficient. Easy.

Even cheaper would be a large solar oven made of black plastic sheeting, like the 6 mil stuff used to seal building foundations before they pour the concrete on, cheap at Home Depot. Comes in very large sheets, which could be laid out and held down on a south-facing yard or slope. Have a sheet of clear plastic on top, to act as a simple greenhouse effect. Sun heats it up, and you draw the air into your house and circulate via simple ducts. For heat storage, add some rocks which are then heated by the hot internal air, to release their heat later, acting as thermal ballast.
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