FREE DIY GREENHOUSE WINDOW HEATER / PASSIVE SOLAR HEATING EXPERIMENTS

[@WhatDadIsUpTo]

I'm autistic, so I see the world differently than others. That said, I too heat with solar, but with a twist: I heat oil. I keep a large receiver filled with oil year round in North Texas, where we get freezing winters. Oil doesn’t freeze. Running in copper heat exchanger loops, suspended from the receiver's top, I am able to apply the stored heat to many "zones" (domestic hot water, space heating, hot tub, etc). I use a copper flemish (shape) active solar receiver powered by a solar panel and an inline pump. When there's enough sunlight to power the circ pump, there's enough to heat the oil. On cloudy days, oil heated to over 400° lasts for days. The receiver is housed in beach sand for insulation purposes.

[@Earthdwellershomestead]

That’s very intriguing, what oil do you use? (We would use something as nontoxic as possible) I’ve thought about experimenting with something like that. We’ve been developing a diy coolant/antifreeze with vegetable glycerine dissolved in water. Glycerine drastically lowers the freezing temp of the water solution.(haven’t released that video yet lol) thanks for the idea also!

[@WhatDadIsUpTo]

@@Earthdwellershomestead Peanut cooking oil

[@Earthdwellershomestead]

@@WhatDadIsUpTo awesome thanks for the reply

[@Pilgrim420]

Great video, Thanks,

[@Earthdwellershomestead]

thanks, appreciate you watching!

[@katipohl2431]

Wow, that's what I would like to get.

[@Earthdwellershomestead]

the sun doesn't always shine, but when it does we can store some decent thermal mass! thanks for checking this one out!

[@WhatDadIsUpTo]

2nd Comment If you were to wind your flat plate solar receiver pipe into a tight flemish (spiral) you can house 50 feet of 1/2 inch copper in an insulated clear-topped space 1 inch high and 36 inches square. That's what I do and it works great and takes up less space while keeping the thermal mas held together tightly with less chance of cooling due to the sides of the tubing being exposed to air, as they are in your application.

[@Earthdwellershomestead]

Great insight, this was an experiment we built last year I planned on filling it with sand like the other one to hold a better thermal mass and not be exposed to air. Thanks for the comments!

[@markottaway6899]

Its been a long time but I'm sure if you get the passive absorber copper pipes set correctly, water should rise as it heats up, creating a kind of circulation. Which would remove the need for a pump and still only work when its sunny

[@Earthdwellershomestead]

that's a great observation! and I noticed the flow slowing on very sunny days as it feeds top to bottom. it allowed the water to heat up as the flow slowed but if the flow was reversed it would probably not need a pump but would have a very slow movement.

[@fk319fk]

I had a neighbor who just heated air and ran it into his house. The coldest days in the winter have no clouds, and he had his windows cracked. This was MO, so it was single digits F.

[@Earthdwellershomestead]

We've had our fair share of broken experiments in and around the greenhouse. Passive solar is my least useful heating method in winter time, that's why we secure other resources for staying off the cold temps of winter. although with an autonomous system as this, we can pull some good thermal mass off into our 100 + gallon tank on the occasional sunny winter day but we go a month at a time without seeing the sun sometimes. thanks for checking this out!

[@ambermiller9341]

I'm a bit lost on what all the parts you're using are. I'd love to see a breakdown of each part of the system and it's function. Thanks for posting,!

[@Earthdwellershomestead]

I will show a build video of a heating box when I make my next one. We have copper coiled up inside painted black and the box is insulated for better heat. We’re flowing water through it slowly to pick up the heat the box is creating and adding the heat to our thermal mass tank down below. I apologize I didn’t. Explain the box the best it was a project from last winter lol thanks for watching

[@TheRainHarvester]

Don't you need to put the solar heater box out side your greenhouse? Inside, you're just stealing heat from other places in the greenhouse.😮

[@ambermiller9341]

@@Earthdwellershomestead I will definitely watch that, thanks for explaining.

[@damianstasek8946]

Any heat that comes through a window is going to heat the space...

[@Earthdwellershomestead]

It’s trapping the heat inside the insulated box and amplifying it much greater than the inside of the greenhouse

[@TheRainHarvester]

​@@Earthdwellershomestead😮no. It "amplifies" the temperature. But this high temp water 's heart gets diluted back down to greenhouse temp as you apply the high temp water to the greenhouse. You need to put this box outside to do any overall heat gain for the greenhouse.

[@Earthdwellershomestead]

The box would freeze with only regular water inside it being outside the greenhouse In winter, hence why it’s inside and why I show temps from it being inside

[@sieciobywatel]

How exactly is this better than water in black barrels? (It's not)

[@Earthdwellershomestead]

This only flows on sunny days. That black barrel has just as much negative draw as our large tank. Water only works as a heat sink when you’ve got sun. This does work better than a barrel as it’s actively heating the water when sun is present, a barrel just sits and absorbs heat slower

[@sieciobywatel]

@@Earthdwellershomestead all energy absorbed by surfaces will be stored and then slowly dissipated. Preferably as slow as possible, by radiation rather than convection. The higher the gradient of the temperature you have, the more quickly energy is going to escape outside. And the cost of additional black barrels of water is so much smaller than your setup... Apart from hackvalue and fun you've had, this seems to be a waste of resources. Sometimes the simplest solution is the best.

[@Earthdwellershomestead]

@sieciobywatel I see your point but barrels are expensive to get clean ones unless your lucky and know a food grade company that throws them out. And the amount of room the take up isn’t ideal although black barrels are the best thermal mass storage for water yes. Raising the temp on the 100+ gallons of water in our tank 10-20f rereleases it at night all the same as black barrels would. The only cost to this system originally was a small pump and the tank. Everything else is recycled or free.

[@sieciobywatel]

@@Earthdwellershomestead you don't need to buy barrels, you can use old plastic buckets or milk jugs, just paint them plack or wrap in black stretcher foil. It's the principle, you need a surface that absorbs sunlight and water to store energy. That's why a simple plastic bucket will always outperform a thin pipe...

[@Earthdwellershomestead]

@sieciobywatel paint is toxic I’ve done that before it always Leeches. Thanks for the ideas