Passive Solar Heater

I know it’s a bit ugly, but i wanted to show you my home made passive solar heater. This heater is attached to our 10,000 square foot warehouse here in Boise. Right now, as i write this post, the outside official temperature is 24 degrees, with a windchill temperature of 11 degrees. But, the sun is shining, and this unit is creating heat for the warehouse approximately 95-100 degree air is coming out of this unit at about 10 cubic feet per minute.

To make this heater, I used discarded corrugated metal roofing to capture the heat, insulating it on the back side. The glass came from a remodel project (reclaimed), and the PVC pipes were sitting in the neighbors warehouse (also reclaimed). Heat is generated by the sun passing through the 1/8inch thick glass and is absorbed by the 2 layers of corrugated roofing. Heat rises, so there are 2 holes at the top of the box putting heat into the warehouse. The cold air is drawn into the bottom of the box from near the floor in the warehouse.

Now, if we only had about 15 of these on the south facing wall of the warehouse, we would save a ton on our heat bills AND be extra cozy in the winter!

Yes…… It only works when the sun shines, but we have PLENTY of clear, winter days here in Boise!

Passive Solar Heater

Dec 31, 2010: Official outside temp = 24F My Passive Solar Heater outlet temp = 119.3F

This is a view of the passive solar heater from the outside. In this picture, you can see the (2) layers of metal roofing. The back piece is full 8′ long, while the piece suspended in the middle is about 7′ long, allowing air to flow on 3 surfaces. Hot air goes in to the building through these 2 holes.

This is a view of my home made passive solar heater installed on the southeast corner of our 10,000 square foot warehouse. The heater is facing almost directly south.

This picture shows the bottom of the home made passive solar heater. Cold air from inside the building (about 12″ above the floor) enters the heater though these 2 holes and washes up 3 steel surfaces painted black.

You can see the sun shining through the (4) holes of the passive solar heater in this view from inside our warehouse. Cold air enters the 2 holes at the bottom and hot air comes back into the building through the top 2 holes.

The glass came from a remodel project (reclaimed), and the PVC pipes were sitting in the neighbor’s warehouse (also reclaimed). Heat is generated by the sun passing through the 1/8″ thick glass and is absorbed by the 2 layers of corrugated roofing. Heat rises, so there are 2 holes at the top of the box putting heat into the warehouse. The cold air is drawn into the bottom of the box from near the floor in the warehouse.

Now, if we only had about 15 of these on the south facing wall of the warehouse, we would save a ton on our heat bills AND be extra cozy in the winter!