Solar Heating with the Heat Grabber

[George Collins]

This seems like a fairly decent piece of technology. Anyone have any experience with this sort of thing?

Seems like the closest thing yet to free energy.

[matt walker]

Those are really cool, I've been interested in them for awhile. Unfortunately for me, you need sunshine for them to be of any use, so that rules 'em out where I live. Still, have you checked out the plans using window screening? Solar Gary has a lot of great info on his experiments with these.

[pa_friendly_guy]

Here is a how to video from you tube. This guy used pop cans and beer cans for his solar furnace. [ For you who are not from western Pa I mean soda cans and beer cans ] He was getting over 200 degree air out of the unit on a cold sunny day.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OqxQFWaKN2Y

Here is another how to video. This guy lives in the woods and has a lot less sun. His unit is smaller and he mounted it to a doorway in a work shop. There are solar panels that power a 12 volt battery system that runs his blower fan. I liked his plan and how he uses the unit in actual practice.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QLNViUsRCVU

[pa_friendly_guy]

Here is a passive solar heat collector that is incorporated right into the design of a home or garage. very little extra cost when you are building new, minor cost when you are remodeling. It uses the side of the building as a passive solar collector. No fans, no energy consumed, only solar heat produced and added to your living space. I liked the idea. My only concern was insulation and heat loss at night.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N6QOZGgbj-g

[Mikimble]

Hi George,

I see this is an older post, but I thought I would respond anyway. I made a system, 3 2foot by 8 foot boxes with screen for the heat exchanger and clear glazing. I used insulated 4" duct to and from the house. I get thirty degrees increase on a sunny day. All this is hooked up to a snap switch, that turns on a fan when the boxes heat up to 120 degrees and turns off at 90.

Works good when the sun shines. After setting it up, it's all automatic.

Mike

[pa_friendly_guy]

That is great Mike, it sounds like a great result for the system. 30 Degree increase is outstanding I feel. Are you seeing that kind of temperature change in one room where the system enters the house, or is that increase for the whole house area? My home has crank out casement windows that do not lend themselves well to this kind of application unfortunately. I have a very small front porch that I could block off totally across with one of these units and then open the front door to allow the heat inside, and close the door when the sun is not out. I would loose the use of my front door, but if anyone goes to the front door we know that they don't know us at all. We are sort of back door kind of folks,

[Mikimble]

Hey PA,

That's the temperature differential between the cold air going out; and the hot air coming back in. I measured at the cold air stack, where it goes out; and I ducted into one of my floor registers for the hot. 65 out, 105 in.

MK

[pa_friendly_guy]

That is a Great heat source from a virtually free source. The minor electric used to run the fan does not really cost much and increases the efficiency of the unit many fold. Having made one of these units already do you have any thoughts about the aluminum can vs the black metal screen? The screen units seem to be working much better than I would have thought. I have always leaned toward using the cans painted black because I felt the aluminum was a great heat transfer material and the metal would help radiate the heat all around the interior of the unit. The cans are more work to make and install but they are free. I wonder if they would work any better than the screen or not.

[Mikimble]

[matt walker]

I laughed! Guy, on Gary's site, which is builditsolar.com, he runs some tests and found that the screens actually worked better. He has so much great info there, we should put a link in Ed. Resources.