Colorado Wind Power: Home Brew Solar hot air heater

Home Brew Solar hot air heater

Solar Pop Can Air Heater

A very effective solar hot air heater to heat your home, chicken coop or where ever you need heat.
this project is cheep to build and only takes 2 to 4 hours to build.

the materials you will need are

double pane glass window.
2x6 lumber
plywood
Styrofoam or cardboard
optional tape to seal Styrofoam seams
Great stuff spray foam
flat black spray paint
Nails and screws

lots of pop cans

OK lets start with the frame of your solar heater

first you will need to measure the dimensions of your double pane glass window. this will be your dimensions of the 2x6 box. the glass can be any size you choose. mine is 30 x 45 inches.

after you have built the frame box you will need to nail or screw plywood to the back of the box.

next you will need to cut out Styrofoam or several layers of card board. the foam or card board should be at least
3/4 inch thick.

I had taped all the seams with thick tape, but this is not all that necessary.

Next the fun begins

I used a torch to burn holes in the bottom of the pop cans and just left the top with the hole alone.

if you don't have a torch you can use a belt sander to cut off the ends of the cans. I like the burn a hole because it is faster.

or you can use the belt sander like I had done here

then take all you cans after you created the holes in the bottom of them and you can start gluing them in the box with the expanding foam. Be careful not to use too much because this stuff expands a lot. and you don't want a big mess on your hands and project.

I found it best to apply the foam to the box and roll the can one at a time into the foam starting at the edge.

OK make sure you leave at least 2 inches at both ends to allow airflow.

In the photo below I made a divider using plastic from one of those signs you see littering up the side of the roads. I am not sure how this will handle the heat but I guess time will tell.
The dividers perpouse is to force the hot air to travel through the cans and not the top of the cans.

With all the cans now glued in place and dry.
you can paint the entire inside of the box with flat black spray paint. I used high heat paint ment for painting BBQ's

after the paint was dry I drilled a large hole in both ends with a 3" hole saw

then I went to my scrap pile of computer parts and tore apart a old power supply and used the fan out of it.
I had installed the fan to suck the air out of the solar heater. I beleive this will prevent uneven flow of air through the solar heater.

The fan I used is 12 VDC .06 amps
this fan dose work well with my small 1.5 watt solar panel that I bought from harbor freight for 11.00 dollars.

the fan is simply screwed down with small dry wall screws.

after I cleand out all the saw dust from drilling the 3" holes I just screwed down the glass using the aluminum frame, If you dont have a aluminum frame just use silicone to glue it in place.

all that is needed now is to run ducting too the area that is needed to be heated.

So how well did this do?

the outside tempture was 72 when I started

and after only being in the sun for about 5 min. in part shade it rose to over 130 is just a few min.

it? almost broke my thrometer before I removed it from the heat.

to the hand the air was very uncomfortable.

If you have any questions about something I did not cover then feel free to post in the comment box below
or the Forum.

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