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Old 11-01-14, 06:24 PM   #21
iammeiamfree
Lurking Renovator
 
Join Date: Nov 2014
Location: algarve
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I have been testing with the black sheets infront of windows and am getting quite good results. The gains are large. The other morning I was seeing air coming off the top of the drape on the large window at 29.5 celcius and the air is gusting. It will even draw the drape in and stick it to the glass. I believe it is working well about a foot away from the glass so that there is little interaction with the glass with a good gap at the top and bottom. This is producing good heat even when the window is in the shade or there are clouds. Some windows appear to produce more on cloudy days than in shade conditions. At first I thought it would not make any difference but it makes a big difference. We have all white walls inside and the neighbouring houses are all painted white on the outside. This is to keep things cool in the summer. They have a rough finish to disperse the light. In the winter this is working beautifully because there is piles of light in all directions. Anyway with white walls inside a large proportion of the light is coming back out of the room. It comes out just as easy as it can get in. This is why you can see lights on in a house from miles away. With the black drapes most of it is not getting more than a foot in and most of the rest is getting caught on the way out. The temperatures are much higher than I have been able to get in previous years at this time of the year. I am planning to make up drapes for all the windows for a total of 17 square metres of collectors. I was trying to build external collectors but it is much easier and cheaper to use the existing windows and you get a huge panel at little cost. When they have strong light I get 4 or 5 degrees celcius warming on a single pass (up about 6 feet). The air is off towards the ceiling and away after only a few seconds and piles of it. I can feel the house go into a fortex with strong currents and over the days it is heating the neighbours house and going down underneath. On lower light conditions it still increases passing air a degree or two! and the air comes round to be reheated over and over again. The other morning there was a gail coming down the far wall where the heated air was pouring down as the heat was being absorbed by the wall. This would certainly save people billions of dollars in heating costs if it was widely used. A lot of the time the light isn't needed for anything (else) e.g. if people are out at work or in the bedrooms that are not being used during the day. If using a room some drapes can be removed for lighting but the insides of the remaining drapes will still take up a lot of that light before it has a chance to leave the room. In locations further north the production would be somewhat lower in December and January but if there is any light it is working and they still require heating in March and April when the days are much longer. They also generally have much better insulation than here and some houses could even over heat if there was too little absorption by the walls.

Cleaning the windows appears to significantly increase heat production and at night the drapes help reduce air moving over the glass and creates a cusion of cooler air there or atleast brings the cooled air down to the floor where it can be warmed by the stored heat. The inside of the room is acting as a huge battery. By making the drapes with plenty of space for air to pass in the bottom and out the top air does not warm as much in one pass but much more of it is is heated and quickly spread more evenly down to the floors. By having a bit of a curve outwards at the top the heated air rising on the indoors side of the drape appears to cause some suction and help draw the air out from the window side of the drape. The drapes may require some weighting (paperclips) to prevent it getting sucked onto the glass when there is full sun. When there is full sun however the glass and metal frame of the windows warms up so the vaccum (drape getting sucked closer to the glass) can work as an advantage as you can get high speeds of air drawing off extra heat from the glass and frame whilst being further away under lower light (cold glass) conditions.

I am planning to get hold of more fabric that is cotton as this should produce safe heat without contaminating the air as some synthetic materials would. The only concern I think is if the dyes give off any toxins when heated but if the material is intended for clothing and making drapes I would hope that is should be safe and with so much air moving over and thru the material it isn't even getting hot to the touch. I generally change all the air atleast once a day in any case. With vapour from an electronic cigerette I am able to really see what is happening e.g. how fast air is moving and which direction.

This would be a great little business to install these for people. I was thinking you know you take the measurments, cut the material and have seams sown on and hang them on hooks or existing curtain rails. Easy money.


Last edited by iammeiamfree; 11-01-14 at 09:29 PM..
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