Passive Solar Heaters: boxes, walls, attics

[KC]

I just posted this exact posting on another site’s forum (to save time). Thought people here might have something to say about it too.

I’m particularly curious about thoughts on my idea of sealing an attic space and using that to capture solar heat to reduce furnace demand. One thing, people without experience with metal roofing may not realize is that they shed the snow load, so that means that the metal could frequently receive direct sunlight throughout the winter. (And yes, I understand he conventional and traditional thinking and learned experience regarding attic design and ventilation, moisture, mould, dry rot, etc in attics.)


My other posting - verbatim:

I’ve long thought about building a stand-alone solar furnace / box to heat air and then blow it into our cabin. It would only likely take some of the chill off and provide a higher start temperature when I go out to the cabin but anything would help.

Plus I have a fair bit of space to work with so I can think big (beyond get little 3x5 DIY examples that are common.) I could easily fit in something more like 12’wx8’h or larger, maybe even something looking more like a fence (say 30’w x6’ h) but I’d guess that the costs would quickly become excessive considering the infrequent usage of the cabin.

So has anyone played around with these?


Here’s a good article (below) and YouTube has lots of DIY heaters that all look pretty creative and all seem primed for some simple further improvements.

Build a Simple Solar Air Heater - Renewable Energy - MOTHER EARTH NEWS


I’m a retired aircraft engineer, but you don’t need a similar background to tackle this project. In fact, a solar air heater built into new construction or added to an existing building can be an easy and inexpensive heating solution. Following the simple principles and plan outlined here, you can heat your workshop, barn or even your home with free heat from the sun. If it works here in Bozeman, Mont., it’s bound to work wherever you are.


https://www.motherearthnews.com/rene...r-zmaz06djzraw

The best thing about wall mounted heaters is one, it could be designed to also increase or decrease wall temp and therefore alter both winter and summer temperatures in the building.

Also:

MY ATTIC RE-THINK - SOLAR ATTIC HEATER:

For another thread, or maybe this one, would be a discussion of my thought to turning a conventional ventilated attic into a sealed attic cavity as in a typical gable ended cabin to passively heat a cabin, garage, etc. Add lots of insulation and run piping in it like one goes with fluid heated flooring and circulate it down into the living space. . Adding metal roofing to a our cabin and garage got me to rethinking that attic, but unfortunately I added whirley birds to our cabin when the metal went on.

[Marcel Petrin]

End of the day, it's probably cheaper and easier to just do PV panels on the roof instead of this concept. Or just build the house/cabin with better insulation so it's nearly net-zero to begin with.

[sundance]

I think great insulation, great windows works in the winter and keeps the heat out in the summer too. Having the house sealed and a heat exchanger to the outside helps too. If you have a very well insulated house you don't need much heat to begin with.

[Replacement]

End of the day, it's probably cheaper and easier to just do PV panels on the roof instead of this concept. Or just build the house/cabin with better insulation so it's nearly net-zero to begin with.

That's what I did and I have the added benefit of water collection from the roof. So that its a solar room, a potential gardening area, and 3 seasons environment. Without any heating I can sit in there in comfort around +250 days of the year. Any sunshine at all warms it up, even on chilly days. I specifically built a slant polycarbonate roof directly facing the sun and thus maximizing incident sun exposure. Used a 2.5foot run over length of the 12ft panels consistent with recommendation. Works great for rain and snow. Snow tends to slide down any day with any sunshine. I occasionally remove snow manually.

[KC]

I think great insulation, great windows works in the winter and keeps the heat out in the summer too. Having the house sealed and a heat exchanger to the outside helps too. If you have a very well insulated house you don't need much heat to begin with.

Yeah I’d love to build new and superinsulate etc. The old 40watt bulb heating the house year round... and build on an acreage where there aren’t the urban constraints of lot size orientation etc.

Unfortunately in terms of heating I’m in the position of having to work with what I have - in this case two old cabins where even some simple modern renovations are somewhat undesirable. Eg there’s no way I’d replace any of the original fir windows with vinyl framed windows.

Building a sunroom across the south face might be one option to capture heat.

[sundance]

Yah to maintain the look means trade offs. So perhaps either PV cells or thermal solar heating are options. If you just want heat you might look at evacuated tubes...
http://www.apricus.com/html/evacuated_tubes.htm