This is Ivan's large shop heating thermosyphon solar air heating collector.
It is 6 ft high by 40 ft wide. This 240 sqft of collector will likely provide in excess of 40,000 BTU per hour on a sunny winter day.
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| The finished 6 by 40 ft collector |
These collectors are very effective heaters and since they rely only on thermosyphoning to move air through the collector they do not need any fans, controls, or power. The only moving parts in the whole collector are the simple backdraft dampers that prevent reverse flow at night. At about $3 to $5 per sqft of collector, these are one of the fastest payback solar projects that it is possible to build.
This is the south wall of the shop before the collector was added:
Ivan just built the collector right over the windows. This allows a nice, wide and simple collector. I think this will work quite well as the windows will still get quite a bit of light through the collector absorber (which is two layers of screen). How to handle existing windows is a question that comes up quite a bit in adding collectors, and I think Ivan's method is definitely worth considering.
The collector frame is built right on the existing shop wall. The upper and lower vents that connect the collector and the shop are visible in the picture. After the frame is done, the back wall is covered with rigid insulation, painted black, and then the two screen absorber is added, followed by the outer glazing.
The glazing being applied to the collectors, which already have the absorbers installed.
This diagram shows how simple the collector is. The solar heated absorber heats the air, which rises out of the collector and draws new air into the bottom. No fans, no controls, no electricity, no maintenance.
Gary
June, 9, 2014
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