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Old 03-09-10, 10:56 AM   #1
Solar
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Default Solar heat for your entire house extremely cheap

I WANTED TO PLACE THIS IN BOTH FORUMS IN CASE ANYONE MISSES IT

My Solar Revelation!


I discovered as of recent that using dark color to absorb energy from the sun works very well.. so well I can heat one room to 75 degrees when the sun was just right in the last place I lived, with no other heat sources..

I have made (unedited as of now)videos proving this but the proof is in the pudding,

I just snagged a place with new windows, insulation, and I applied the techniques at my new place

basically the materials consist of dark blue(tinted with blue and black and maybe some purple, not red colors(you can see this when you shine light through a sheet)) bed sheets and black that allow light to pass through basically you use these as curtains on your windows, and when then sun is out on that window pull up the blinds and let the sun hit it, PULL BACK THE END OPPOSITE OF WHERE THE SUN IS HITTING THE SHEET TO ALLOW THE NATURAL CONVECTION OF AIR TO PULL THE HEAT OUT OF THE BLANKET OR SHEET LIKE A RADIATOR,

IN A MATTER OF MINUTES YOU CAN RAISE THE TEMPURATURE OF A WELL INSULATED HOUSE A FEW DEGREES. THIS IS WAY MORE PRACTICAL THAN 30,000$ SOLAR INSTALATIONS, THESE SHEETS ALSO ACT AS CURTAINS OR INSULATION AT NIGHT TO KEEP THE HEAT IN, THIS FORM OF HEAT IS MUCH HEALTHIER AND MORE NATURAL THAN GAS, ITS LESS DRY

I CAN GET THIS PLACE IM IN TO 76 DEGREES USING THIS METHOD, I AM USING A DIGITAL SURFACE THERMOMETER TO DO READINGS.

OTHER PROJECTS USING COLOR INCLUDING SOLAR PANELS MADE OUT OF BLACK PAINTED ALUMINUM OR PLASTIC PIPING SEALED IN A BOX USING A FAN TO BLOW THE HEAT INTO YOUR HOUSE, UNFORTUNATELY ALOT OF THIS STUFF NEEDS PERMITS, PUTTING CURTAINS ON YOUR WINDOWS DOES NOT, AND COSTS A ALOT LESS, I PAYED ABOUT 50$ FOR ALL THE MATERIALS NEEDED FOR THIS FOR 12 WINDOWS.

also 100% flat black paint will add to this, but be careful of semi-gloss paint, it'll add a cooling effect to your house, flat paint is warmer feeling and absorbs more heat energy you can paint ect if you find true flat unltra black paint, but paint manufactures don't have this available, I found a gallon of 15 year old black paint on the curb being given away with other paint AND THE PIGMENTS IN THAT PAINT ARE MUCH DIFFERENT AND RICHER THAN NEW PAINT, DUE TO EPA REGULATIONS AND CHANGES IN PAINT MIXTURES PAINT HAS BEEN MADE TO NOT ABSORB AS MUCH HEAT YOU NEED TO FIND AN EXACT PAINT FOR YOUR APPLICATION IS WHAT I AM SAYING, AND MOST OF THE PAINT OUT THERE IS NOT IT.

For example:
Home depot does not sell any flat paint at all, end of story.
they call it matte/flat, which if you go to a real paint store they will TELL YOU SPECIFICALLY THAT MATTE IS NOT FLAT PAINT REGARDLESS OF WHAT THE GUY AT HOME DEPOT SAYS. I NEED TO RESEARCH THIS MORE, BUT I HEAVE HEARD THAT BLACK EXHAUST PAINT MIGHT WORK..
________

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Old 03-09-10, 10:57 AM   #2
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find a room in your house that is cold all the time, try this and then you will understand what im saying also tucking in curtains so theyre snug against the windows helps, air moving against cold glass, also this is the same idea with semi gloss paint, its a colder surface so it can cool your house down more

this will work differently in different climates when its colder outside and the glass on your window is cold so you have to be aware of when to pull up blinds to all the sun to hit the sheets and close the blinds when its done. there is some manual labor but not much and the payoffs are big
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Old 03-10-10, 07:12 AM   #3
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It sure seems like leaving the curtains (or shades) open when it's sunny,
and closing them when it's not sunny does about the same thing.

Passive solar heating. I've been doing since 1973..

At this very moment, I have the very bright 8AM sun coming in the windows of my PC room. (Toasty)!
It's saving me heating oil and helping with the S.A.D. at the same time!

Cheers,
Rich
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Old 03-10-10, 11:26 AM   #4
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white vs black curtains, well white curtains would reflect the sun out of your house and likewise material would conduct less heat in your house, whats important is the surface tempurature while the sun hits it, you could paint your window black and it would be 3 or 4 degrees warmer than if it were white providing they were both flat paint, my point is, if you make a concerted effort to put dark pigmented material where the sunlight hits in your home, then it will emmanate more heat by far, i have this one board i painted with that 15 year old black paint I found and it gets 120 degree F in the sun, i have video documentation of this. if it were white, it would be nowhere near that hot

go buy a digital surface thermometer at autozone for 20$ and do some experimenting.

its about the type of paint we are having a good discussion about this at gassavers .org

they linked me here

Last edited by Solar; 03-10-10 at 11:29 AM..
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Old 03-10-10, 11:27 AM   #5
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do a straight white vs black comparison everywhere you can white pavement vs black white car vs black
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Old 03-11-10, 06:15 AM   #6
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this is using the same idea as the solar can heater sort of as far as pigments are concerned black pavement=hot white pavement=not
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Old 03-11-10, 06:16 AM   #7
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this is using the same idea as the solar can heater sort of as far as pigments are concerned black pavement=hot

I have tested and proven my method with tempurature measuring tools
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Old 03-11-10, 06:55 AM   #8
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When the sun (at a certain power level for a certain amount of time) comes into the window,
and is inside your house..

Some of obviously bounces right back outdoors (unless everything inside is flat black).
People outdoors can see inside, because of that reflected light.

However, looking at the light bouncing outdoors, is not at all like looking at the sun.
The watts per sq meter are very low..

My point is, almost all (90% ?) the light getting inside my windows will stay inside the house.

So, what happens to those photons?

Do they all end up absorbed and turned into heat?

It seems they do not remain in their 'light' state. Otherwise they would
accumulate indoors and it would be like living inside a Laser tube..

My guess is, they are mostly converted into heat..
(Unless you have some PV panels in the room)..


So, the question that comes to mind.. If 100 watts of solar power (light)
comes into this room and 10% bounces right back outdoors..

Would the color of the room really make much difference to
remaining the 90 watts of energy left in the room?

Won't it just scatter around and hit surfaces in the room where it will
be absorbed and turned into heat?
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Old 03-11-10, 08:43 AM   #9
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Alot of light and heat can get reflected back, that is why having dark colors help, the dark objects absorb more of the heat from the sunlight, my parents have a sun room with a light colored floor, it's a cold floor in the winter, light colored rugs are also cold on that floor, the dark rugs get warm, it has to do with the reflective quality of the color, but while a dark color soaks up the infrared radiation it will also give it off, so while having dark curtains in the day will help heat the room you want light colors at night by the windows to keep that infrared radiation from being transmitted out, if you want to use your solar hot water panels for cooling then you run them at night, the nights sky soaks up that heat and cools the panels in the same way the window without a curtain on it lets the heat out of your house.


Quote:
Originally Posted by Xringer View Post
Do they all end up absorbed and turned into heat?

It seems they do not remain in their 'light' state. Otherwise they would
accumulate indoors and it would be like living inside a Laser tube..

My guess is, they are mostly converted into heat..
(Unless you have some PV panels in the room)..


So, the question that comes to mind.. If 100 watts of solar power (light)
comes into this room and 10% bounces right back outdoors..

Would the color of the room really make much difference to
remaining the 90 watts of energy left in the room?

Won't it just scatter around and hit surfaces in the room where it will
be absorbed and turned into heat?
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Old 03-11-10, 10:04 AM   #10
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"Alot of light and heat can get reflected back"

To be clear, I'm only talking about light that gets inside the house. Not the sun light reflected off the exterior glass.


What I'm thinking about is a normal room with a mix of dark and light objects inside.

Yes, I know that if everything in the room was painted black, it would not have much light lost back out the windows..

But, in a normal room it seems like (once inside) only a small amount of light bounces back outdoors.
My guess is about 10%.. I could be way off.

If it were a lot light coming out, looking into a window from the outdoors, would be almost like looking at the sun..
Like if your room was covered with mirrors, much of the light would just bounce back outdoors.



So, my thinking is, if you have 90% of your light bouncing inside the normal room,
isn't it going to get converted into heat? It can't just bounce around all day..


My point is, whatever comes in the window (and stays) is all you get..
It's going to convert into heat..

If it's 90 watts, it can only convert to 307 BTUh.. No matter the colors of the room.

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