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Solar Panel


Drew

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I have I have a 4' x 12' solar unit that has been hanging on the south side of my house for 12 years now. It saves me about a tank of fuel oil a year. A very simple build but I had an idea location. My house faces due south and I had a basement window that I was able to use to introduce basement air into the unit. In a nut shell here is what I did. I took off the siding of the house and I built a 4x12 frame out of treated 2 x 6's. I hung this on the wall and then attached 2" of sheet rock directly to the house to use as mass. In front of the sheet rock I attached a 10' x 3' brown sheet metal plate to use as my absorption plate. In front of this I placed 3- 4 x 4' theropane windows. On the lower /bottom of the collector I drilled a 4" hole into the basement through an existing window. On the two upper corner of the collector I drilled a 4" hole into the living room of my house. In the basement I placed a simple bathroom exhaust fan on a timer. The fan blows the 60 degree air from the basement into the collector where it passes across the absorption plate rises and enters the house through the two top vents. There is about 25 cubic feet of air trapped behind the glass and the fan moves 50 cubic feet a minute for a total air exchange every 30 seconds. Very common in the winter for the temperature to reach in to the 90's for several hours during the day.

The collector works best in spring and fall when I get temps into the 110's and 6-8 hrs of heat. Through trial and error I have learn a lot about the system. I would not use theropanes again as I have actually overheated the collator and cracked the inner glass. I have had temps as high at mid 140's This past fall I have added a separated free standing pre heater to the system. A small well insulates building that gets air again from the basement and raise the temp into the mid 70's before venting into the solar collector to be heated up to mid 80's before being vented into the house. This is an ongoing project and I am looking at doubling the volume of heated air to the house for just the price of running a few exhaust fans. This pre unit will also be used as a greenhouse in the spring and a screen house in the summer. That unit is 4 x 12 x 8' tall with 6" insulated walls, ceiling and a insulated floor with brick mass. I am looking for temps in this unit to be in the 90's before venting to the main collector. There is a start for you, hope it gives you some ideas..two of them running here.

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My daughter, who is an artist just painted a flower mural over some 1/4 plywood that we mount over the face of the collector. ( a tarp can also be used) Now the collector is an A/C unit as it is still pulling the cool air (60degree) from the basement and pumping that into the living room. With the glass being shaded it does not get a chance to heat up and helps with moving air through the basement with out opening up windows and having a moisture problem. The preheat building will not have the fans on and has working windows and screens. Also it sits behind apple trees that will leaf out and shade it.

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Hey Bobby Bass - thanks for the info. Did you insulate the collector? Some of the units I found on-line used foil faced foam. R-Max I believe? Did you install baffels. A snap disk controller might be an ideal way to turn your fan on and off. Do you have any pictures you could send me?

Thanks for the info.

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The main collector face is all glass and the side walls which are only 6" thick do have a layer of foil face on them. The rear wall which hangs on the house has no need for insulation as the goal is to produce as much heat to be transfer to the air to then be taken by the blower into the house. The two inches of sheet rock behind the metal plate act as mass to help absorb some of the heat and to give a more even and longer release of stored heat.

The "Box" or the pre heater as we call it is well insulated. Starting with 4 inches of foam packing peanuts in the frame between the floor and the ground. There is then ½ green treated plywood a layer of 1" pink foam and then another ½ of plywood. Walls are 2x4 with ½ wafer board wrapped in gorilla wrap and the cedar siding. Inside walls are R-11 with ½ sheet rock and then the entire inside is wrapped with ¼ foil faced fan fold insulation. Ceiling has 10" of fiberglass and the foil face. All seams are metal foil taped. There is like zero air from the outside. Only air is the air from the basement blower. Movement of air is kept simple with just timers and manual over rides. Rule of thumb is if you can get a 40 degree rise you have a successful collector I average in the 60+ range. The best part about this is the first collector that I built cost me 100.00 to make I got the glass for free. I save an average of a tank of fuel a year about 250 gals times 12 years you do the math if it was worth it or not. I am hoping the pre heater will save me another tank but it will take a year of tweaking and tracking numbers to see if it works.

At the very least it will be my new nursery for my garden as in March I will plant in it and leave the fan on at night sending heated air into the box so it will not freeze at night. As the sun gets up higher and stays out longer the box will continue to pump heat to the collector and then into the house. I will be able to control the heat by opening windows in the box if needed. Or simply turning off the airflow from the basement. Here is an old picture of the main collector..

house2-1.jpg

And here is one with a summer cover on it

Sep20177.jpg

I will have to take some pictures of the box as that was built to the right of the collector.

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When I did a major remodeling of my house 20 years ago I really looked at passive solar as much as I could. I double the glass on my South side of my house and reduced glass on North and East facing walls. Look into adding as much glass as you can on the South side and also look into adding a solar porch. As for landscaping look at trees that will shade your glass in the Summer and allow sunlight in the winter. This summers project will be to add a solar porch to increase my passive heat gain even more. Oil may be down now but the price will go up again...Look into adding glass to your garage also for free heat and light.

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I have been looking for something like this also. About 25 years ago there was an evening class at Luverne High School on how to make a 4' x 8' solar heater. Well the guy I worked with at the Luverne Water Treatment Plant went to the class. We then made solar heaters for the treatment plant. They worked great. We made a frame out of 2 x 4's with a plywood backing. Then we put tin painted flat black on the back of the inside. We then made a maze of 1 x 4's so the air had to weave through it. We bought a little thermostat at the local hardware store. that hooked up to a fan. It turned the fan on and off and was adjustable and only cost a few dollars. I believe it turned on at 90 degrees so as to not cool the panel too fast. We had one 4" hole on the bottom and one 4" hole on the top. The glass front was a special plexiglass that was not real clear and seems like it had hair like material embedded in it. This was a heat resistant material. We then used that tin foil tape and taped over all of the 1 x 4 deflector boards and the 2 x 4's inside of the panel so they would not deteriotate so fast. (we might have painted that black too) We couldn't believe how well they worked. Even on cloudy days it would run quite a bit. I have been looking for plans lately too. You peaked my interest and I will be looking for them online now... Thanks for the motivation. I am sure that more than one panel could be hooked together also for more heat using the one fan.

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Does anybody know where I can get a piece of Lexon 48"x96"(plexiglass) and not have to pay an arm and a leg? I have a couple of glass panels from a sliding glass door but I would rather use something lighter. Any suggestions?

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