Quote:
Originally Posted by GaryGary
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 |
Wow...his plenum idea in the attic is very cool. Looks like its pretty effective for him too.
I think new homes could definetly be built to take advantage of attic heat for space heating at a minimal cost , and be a real selling point for the consumer.
Upon careful consideration, ive decided to not do the attic Pex tubing Collector which would be the cheapest way out , and instead, build and install a Collector box on ground level and thermosyphon the water to my existing 40 gal. water heater ... and hopefully never have to turn on the water heater . I figure a grand total material cost of $350 and be gauranteed some good quality hot water all the time. Its certainly more advantegeous if you live in sunny hot Florida as i do !