"Fredericton man builds $300 solar furnace, decreases heating bill"

[mackdaddy]

10. Here are some excellent resources for do it yourself Solar air heating.

There are dozens of videos on Youtube of people who have build similar Solar Air heating boxes, but most just point a thermomerter at the output, and go see it get hot.
The real question is how many BTU's of heat are actually delivered into the room, with is temperature rise, but also amount of hot air delivered.

The best group I have seen who have done some real testing with at least some validity is the "Simply solar" and "Build it Solar" guys. They have built many variations, and there is a blog of many other self built versions of these.

Although most people started out with the cans in a row type, what they have found is that versions built with either aluminum downspout tubing, and another version with several layers of window screen have had superior performance. And they have done extensive side by side testing to show what works best.

Any of these can be constructed very inexpensively. I have not built any yet, but I would like to heat a workshop pole building, and may even try a portable one for the house.

Here are the links"

Overview Video of solar air heaters:

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Main website of examples:
http://builditsolar.com/
http://www.simplysolar.supporttopics.com/

Blog and discussion group:
http://www.builditsolarblog.com/