Heating Seattle backyard studio with soda cans as solar panels

Peter Rowan left his job as a "corporate weenie" in 2010 to live a life with less stuff and fewer expenses and with more time to pursue his dreams.
Since downsizing his life, he's begun writing fiction from home (in addition to a teaching gig) so for a bit more privacy, this year he decided to single-handedly convert the family's unused garage into his off-grid writing retreat. Crafting it mostly out of repurposed materials, he decided to heat it using a home-made, recycled can solar panel.
After collecting 275 cans (soda, juice, mineral water, and beer), he began to drill holes into the ends, glue them together and fit them into a box crafted from plywood and 2 by 4's. Adding a bit of black spray paint and some plexiglass, he created his home-made solar panel. He salvaged a couple of fans from an old computer to create a system for pushing cold air into the solar panel and pushing the hot air out and into his office.
In this video, Mary Rowan used her iphone to film her husband's month-long process of building a solar heater with recycled cans. Granted Seattle may not be the ideal spot for solar, but Peter says that it seems to heat up the space by about 5 or 6 degrees even on a "crummy day" and when the sun is out it can provide too much heat.
Instructions for building a solar heater with recycled cans: faircompanies.c...
On *faircompanies: faircompanies.c...
Peter's fiction writing: www.amazon.com/...

[@donaldjones8920]

Love seeing videos where mistakes are shown as well as successes. Thank you for not editing out the errors.

[@TallulahBelle3276]

We learn more that way. Mistakes perfect the project. 👍🏽

[@jstrick38us]

I built one of these kind of things back in the late '70s. It was much simpler in that we used corrugated metal painted black as the collector, so no glue and easy to build. We used a 6 inch flex hose (like a dryer vent but larger) to feed air in and out. We didn't need a fan - convection provided plenty of circulation. We also mounted it flat on the south wall with no tilt. We also found that it would cool the air on a summer night, but in the winter had to close it so it didn't provide cooling all night.

[@tomcollier00]

Did you put glass on the front, or just a 'box' with metal on the front?

[@willybones3890]

@@tomcollier00 Good question. I saw one someone made with the lens from an old tanning bed (UV grade lexan) and the heavy aluminum beer bottles inside downspout tubes (more mass) and he just used a computer fan. Thing worked great.

[@MrLwr4444]

The reason for the aluminum cans is aluminum heats quicker than other metals such as steel and they are very thin so they heat extremely quickly and they cost nothing or very little

[@mb-3faze]

@@MrLwr4444 I suspect the heat generated would be much the same if there were no cans at all and he just had a matt black painted box with the plexiglass front. The energy in is determined by the surface area of the plexiglass adjusted for the angle of the sun's radiation striking it. The losses would be A) radiation back out through the plexiglass and B) conduction through the box materials. Maybe the reduction in convection losses facilitated by all the cans helps a bit? It's great to see such experimentation! The rain is hilarious - that's Seattle through and through.

[@aishlingmullerify]

I have a corrugated roof on my studio, would I be able to repurpose this in any way to get some heat out of it, although Ireland is very wet and grey weather wise

[@kirstendirksen]

Mary filmed this video this winter (it's taken me awhile to edit it). And to be clear while Peter says on days with full rain the system might not be working, most of the time- even on overcast days- he gets a bump of about 5 or 6 degrees. So yes, perhaps in summer he doesn't need it, but Seattle summers are fairly short.

[@Latinoallover625]

I like the idea

[@Latinoallover625]

Ok!

[@Latinoallover625]

I don't know much about it! But I'm following it plus more power etc,. Natural from the sun etc,..

[@CR-di1lg]

He just need a windmill from the Ezgro go for the cloudy days 👍🏻

[@gsnanna56]

The young Native American teenager that come up with this idea on a reservation to keep his little sister warm would be VERY pleased to see his idea being used in larger scale to help you out !!!

[@JoeCubicle]

Huge props to this guy !!! He's doing something, I'll always applaud a guy moving ideas forward. AFTER watching the whole video I would have: Made unit wider and not as tall, roof-mounted very secure, draw air from floor by the door and tube it up to unit, insulate-tube hot air down to behind the chair where he sits at desk, use maybe a tiny-bit stronger fan to overcome lack of convection with a roof unit, cold air intake near floor by the door.

[@petemavus2948]

Peter, "woulda, could a, shoulda"... YOU DID and got results. I'm sure Kirsten saw the value of your efforts as do many of us or she wouldn't want to share/ teach with you. Thanks, and stay well all!

[@waellerbe]

This another incredible solution. I admire the genius of this gentleman's simple example of a homemade solar panel.

[@at39degrees]

All houses should now be designed and built to use as much "free" energy as possible .South walls should be built to absorb heat when needed. and be able to deflect it when it isnt.

[@5226-p1e]

So I just watch this video, and I thought what about the Attic? The attic already collects heat so if that could be pumped back into the house because if you think about it the tiles on a natural roof collect heat on their own because they're black tiles not only that if there is heat in the house it's automatically collected in the Attic, so I thought maybe during the winter the exhaust should be taken out or blocked off or it can be used to resiphon the air back into the house during the winter colder months, so in my opinion the house is already built for that system it just needs a few pipes in order to circulate the intake and outtake of the heat.

[@reginafisher9919]

Yep that's what we are all thinking, but what are the builders doing nothing, building crap box homes that blow away in tornado winds, no one should have to pay for water we should all be collecting water and reusing it. It is just ridiculous that we are in 2022 and not implementing any of this.

[@vicariouswitness]

@@reginafisher9919 we do implement this … just not in large volume. City bylaws and city convenience simply restricts us. It’s really a city hall thing. Here’s a design I know… sunken ground floor and main (top) floor (total height from ground level is only 15 ft)) easy and cheaper to maintain. Roof top patio (safety and privacy). Sun lined exterior walls are covered with veggies/greens to create a thermal mass. Shallow geothermal heating (6ft deep 265 linear ft in a winding circle around the home). home is around 1200 sqft. 3 bedroom 1.5 bathroom. Solar array (1000watts. 5x2 panels) is designed into a pergola to park a vehicle , walls for garage can also be made of vertical wall gardens.

[@Ms_Jetta]

@@vicariouswitness Thanks for the visual! It sounds really neat. Yeah, I dont know why more people don’t implement things like this to draw from the resources available- my guess is lack of creativity, or just plain know-how. This was a really cool video

[@montygates8767]

You are right. In fact, it should have been done starting 50 years ago.

[@debbieboring3422]

Good for him he took an idea he had and went with it. I think it did well for being his first panel. I sure it cost way less then even buying it wholesale. Congratulation sir.

[@inkooh8]

I like the reduce, reuse, recycle strategy. You could run the hot air return hose down the wall some and still have enough thermal differential to move the air since the greenhouse/can solar collector is the pump and he heat in there should drive circulation still.

[@bigfoot4000]

I used a thick can koozie to hold the cans while cutting the end caps with a hole saw. It saves your hands and holds the can firmly with out denting the can.

[@maryeliason1504]

Good idea. Thanks for sharing.

[@Guy_de_Loimbard]

I saw you using a San Pellegrino can for one of the last open spots. If you used a lot of those, that would explain the height variations in your columns. Those cans are 330ml which is 11.2oz, whereas the standard U.S.-sized soda/beer can is 12oz.

[@johnellis1952]

It's great to see an "average Joe" implement a simple system that usually only hardcore DIYers install. The complete process with warts and all is especially illuminating for newbies...it proves that you can survive mistakes and actually learn something new. I see him the way to more practical projects to reduce costs and "save the world". Good job.

[@montiraruba2831]

Cold air is more dense so it tends to be on the floor level. Hot air rises to the ceiling. So to make it more efficient, have the cold air intake from the floor level and have the hot air return to the floor level also. The warmer air coming from the solar will tend to rise from the floor level to the ceiling.

[@felix_neko]

How would you set it up however, such that the hot air would come from the bottom, since anyways inside the solar can heater, the air is probably going up no?

[@paulmonk7820]

@@felix_nekoThink he means to pipe the hot air coming from the top of the box to the lower level of the room.

[@felix_neko]

@@paulmonk7820 ah okay, I guess in a separate mechanism then right.

[@paulmonk7820]

@@felix_neko No, just extend the length of the indoor section of pipe bringing in hot air from the top to the lower part of the wall. It will still flow.

[@seancalabro8607]

That's what I miss most about Seattle. The creative, inventive, imaginative engineering and qwerky cool people. What a great family also.

[@sgillhoolley]

I get that some people can envision improvements on the design, and that is cool for sharing, but he said that sometimes the place got too hot, and he did not seem to complain that it did not get hot enough, so I would call this a win.

[@Latinoallover625]

Awesome!

[@asdfpslund]

Great stuff! Appreciate you showing the mistakes so I can try to plan ahead. Love the shot of the rain too. Grew up on the Eastside & don't miss the rain one bit.

[@OldTooly]

These do work, and insulating the box really helps the efficiency. I built some back in the 70's when beer and soda cans were made a little differently. I cut the complete top off and then bored out the base. The cans were tapered and simply slipped over each other and required no adhesive. I also found that keeping the cans indoor inside the window of the house worked best allowing the cans to simply vent out the top. Really simple and kept the house above freezing all by itself.

[@artsymamanana]

Maybe building a wall out of them! Hmm. Kind of like a sliding door, but a solar can heater. Or maybe use an existing sliding door for heat in the winter, and take a box with cans off in the summer to use as a sliding door. Like an attachment to a sliding door.

[@artsymamanana]

I may make one for my chicken coop run. It is closed with greenhouse plastic in the winter because it gets below 0 here often.

[@jasondean88888]

If it helps, the passive solar water heat I built would get water up to 110F on a 65 degree cloudy day. I'm 60 miles south of you. Have you considered building something similar but with water as the heat sink so that it would store heat that could be used in the evening? For example, if all the cans were filled with water, the overall efficiency would go up (air sucks at storing heat) and you could still circulate air past the cans to heat the office, even hours after the sun went down.

[@stefanodogg280]

Word: Black plastic water tubing. I get it free on Craigslist and it works great in a snail config

[@StonemanRocks]

Use glycol instead of water!

[@Rick-the-Swift]

One issue I see with using liquid in the cans inside the solar heater itself is that will work against you after a freezing or cold night, then the next day your solar "heater" is struggling to melt the ice in the cans meanwhile passing on all that stored coldness into your room during the day.

[@oldowl4290]

So, a couple questions. 1- This obviously only works during the day. Ok, cool, fine. But then you still have to heat from sunset to sunrise somehow. 2- I would think that mounting the cans horizontally and possibly connecting them like one giant snake / tube would produce more heat than just pumping cool air into the box and extracting warmer air out of the top. So imagine the box set horizontal, like a 3ft x 6ft, (or 4x8) with the intake tube coming into the lower left corner and exiting out of the upper right or vice-versa, where the air flow is continuous through one long snaking tube. I think that would ultimately be a lot more effective. Horizontally mounting the box would, theoretically, give the air more time to warm up as it's not rising as quickly as a vertical box with all cans not piped together. So slowing down the air movement while also controlling the pathways of the air would presumably generate more heat.

[@wulfdont7011]

use a foam can coozy to grip the can when you drill it it supports the can and grips well ...offers a bit of protection to

[@blairbushproject]

Wulf Don t yah and don’t drink the beer and then drill the can either. Safety Sally says.

[@Latinoallover625]

Your absolutely right dude!🤔

[@pcino11]

So on warm sunny days, it produces a lot of heat, but on cold dreary days it doesn't......the more you need heat, the less effective it is. That's brilliant.

[@shophet125]

Cool design. These things are neat. I haven't yet seen anyone use flexible aluminum dryer vent pipe (sprayed matte black) in place of the cans. I want to try making one, though.

[@Krystalwatchesvideos]

This guy is awesome:) Good for him! Chase your dreams while you can!

[@porkytorkwal]

Exactly! But, the air must expand somewhere if it can. And, it will until it begins to cool. It will flow to the area with lower pressure.

[@angelashort1331]

What a good couple , Using The lounge as his workshop , and the lady is all for it , GOD BLESS her , one day she'll have her own workshop , good on her , and him ,😉

[@ph1sh100]

KZbin candle heater. I used one while camping on MT rainier and it worked OK. I live 20 miles north of you and am looking to go off grid. Glad to know others use solar here

[@brymazter22]

nice idea there sir. I am a mechanical engineering student and this would be a great study for us to come up with. like the total effective number of cans that can heat a certain volume of space.

[@Aw-ns1qx]

I know it's 9 yrs now and i hope you're well! Dos you do it?

[@gayalux1688]

Actually, so far earthships seem to be the most complete off grid options with independent water collection and management, compost toilets, solar panels and underground thermic ventilation. Entirely built with recycled materials. 🏡

[@reduceenergycostsmet]

It really works... really.. I just got it done the other day and I'm enjoying the warm breeze in my room today...

[@valumin173]

How many cans have you used? i'm going to start my project soon, i will put the panel on the roof and bring two inlet and outlet pipes to my room, hopefully it will work.

[@kd1s]

Pretty cool idea. I never thought of heating air directly. I do want to do a liquid based system - use some water with anti-freeze/boil obviously - lots easier to circulate.

[@richardthomasion9988]

great share on this There is a professional wind and solar green energy guide on *www.SolarDiy.org* for anyone looking for additional tips like this for saving at home and building your own.

[@Coincidence_Theorist]

@@richardthomasion9988 that site is shady. They wont allow me to view using a vpn.

[@penguinpie5056]

As someone who has suffered permanent nerve damage in his hand from a hand drill, this made me very uneasy. I grew up around cabinet making too so it wasn't like I wasn't careful. Taking an extra 10 minutes to make a jig could save you a lifetime of your hand not working right. In the end I was drilling through aluminum and the drill bit broke and in the split second before I took my finger off the trigger it went straight through my thumb which was probably 6 in away from the piece

[@Oldbmwr100rs]

What about using 3" corrugated black drain pipe?It's already the right color,and if the air still flows too fast,add some baffling.

[@haydenm2397]

I love how he's standing under the porch with an umbrella and the wife is in the rain filming :'D

[@AdlerMow]

Really nice. If you put a white shutter 2 inches apart form the heater, you can open and close it so to block sunlight at will in these summer days, while opening it a night so to work in reverse and cool it off.

[@CyclingMikey]

He could hang a couple of telltales on the hot out pipe so you can see when it's working. A bit of thread will show whether there's any convection running.

[@dirkbarrineau7030]

I love the scale. BTW, I found out that you can use a can opener to cut the rim and the bottom of the can off super easily, fast and safely. Just passing this on. Also, question for you. Does that sealant you used withstand the temperature inside the unit well?

[@paulmonk7820]

Can opener does well on can tops, but nothing on the bottom of most cans nowadays for it to grip.

[@SapioiT]

You could use a small fan with one of the soda can pillars, to move air from the roof to the floor. Also, you can adapt the soda can panels to power a small stirling engine, or even a rammed earth heat storage unit insulated with aerated concrete, to store some of that heat to have 24/7 electricity production. Would you need all that? Probably not, but it's nice to have some extra energy or backup system, just in case. Also, you can use the output of the stirling engine as an input for a heater or cooler (depending on the direction of rotation), so you can cool down the place in the summer and heat it during the winter.

[@shelbylynn09100]

Mount a small solar panel on the front driving a small computer fan to draw the air through the Heat export pipe. That way the fan will only run when the sun is hitting the cans. Also the air inport pipe could be reconfigured to recycle the air from inside so you're not drawing air that is cold from outside.

[@RogerKeulen]

Yep, good advice i think. You don't want to warm up very cold air if you can re-heat internal air. That is also the problem with fire boxes. If you blow the air to outside, your pulling cold air in on a other place. And if you put two valves in it you can make it close and shutdown automaticly with a small battery and a small solar panel.

[@raysun65]

Also, place the fan on the hot outlet side of the collector. You can always pull more air than you can push.

[@TheWarrrenator]

That's what is great about this channel, not only is it visionaries and professionals, it's also trial-and-error schlubs like the rest of us. Also how well insulated is it? If it is air-tight a little rig like that could make a difference... and yeah, I am sure he plugged up those holes. Like y'all never made one mistake ever! Pencils have erasers, ok? But if he is cold all the time in Seattle, why not just move south? Or have a whisky? Or a space that size just put in an ammo box stove. Cheers, neighbor!

[@nacoran]

I have track lighting in my apartment. Back when I had incandescent bulbs my apartment was much warmer. At the time we had electric heat. They switched us to natural gas, but it made me think that the ideal light fixture for a house with electric heat could have a heat lamp and a LED bulb and be tied into the thermostat and motion sensors so that it could rotate what bulb it was using to optimize comfort on cold days but still save energy on warmer days.

[@Aw-ns1qx]

Interesting and very cool idea! I wonder how thw studies chipotle be done to know the energy cost vs save? You should run with it if it's a passion!

[@kathe.o.]

Interesting! Solar energy is the way of the future. Proof via DIY. But one question: What would men do without DUCT tape?

[@StonemanRocks]

And Zip-ties!

[@KathleenJean53]

Ingenious. I have seen a design on the same principle where the black boxes feed into the sealed cracked open windows. Loads of passive heat.

[@71160000]

I built mine five years ago out of beer cans but I used foil faced styrofoam to build the insulated box with green house polycrilic corrogated panel. It's built as a thermoplane. Two layers. First layer is a space under the heater with a layer of foam above and then on top of that is my can layer with a board at the top and bottom with holes to match the cans. I used a drill press to drill out the cans using a thick can cozzy to hold the cans while drilling. The double layer of the heater runs the length and width of the heater. It's a bit complicated but the heater sits at the proper angle for max sun during the winter and there's a piece at the top that becomes level and fits in the bottom of a window. So inside air flows into the lower space and as the collector heats up it draws in more air and blows heated air into the house. I get about five hours of max heat with around a fifty degree temperature increase on the air going into the heater. I'd say it paid for itself the first winter.

[@johnpalasz672]

Great video. Here is some suggestions for you: Use a small solar powered fan to circ the air. Insulate the back and sides of the box. Cover the glass panel (a tarp, blanket, or maybe aluminum foil) in the summer so you are not heating your space.

[@BrotherDominick1]

If you do paraffin wax packs/walls in the room, they will store the heat and release it when needed, and also cool down when too hot

[@Rick-the-Swift]

Just remember anything you put in the room that will store heat will also store cold from the night when the place is freezing, so that when you try to warm up the room in the morning the paraffin wax will be acting like little refrigerators, until they finally warm up which may not be when you need the heat.

[@porkytorkwal]

Maybe I'm not understanding your question, but you seem to acknowledge the principle when you state that cold air is more dense. Hot air is less dense and as such has a larger volume. If you heat the air it must then occupy more space. As the hot air escapes from one end it is being replaced by cold at the other. The cold air is heated and the cycle continues (until it reaches stasis). This is why we have ocean breezes and Stirling engines.

[@tensleep]

Nice video a well built can collector will put out a lot of heat. Looks like your collector could use some manifolds. I used rain gutter downspouts for manifolds on my can collector.

[@flyinspirals]

As usual, the only tricky part is getting the air to FLOW where you want it to go. This issue stops a lot of otherwise willing & able people friom working with heat (or cooling), so I wrote (3000-odd words) about it, and posted it to my channel. Air flow is essential for starting &.running a wood stove, a fireplace, or a HEAT PUMP (this system). It's as close as you'll ever get to a perpetual motion machine. (BTW, in summer, place panel on roof for cooling, vent thru ceiling, so keep yr holes!)

[@MakeMeThinkAgain]

The great thing about this video is that the guy did almost everything wrong and it still worked (drilling the cans without protection, putting it on the ROOF, adding an extra hole on the wall, if I understood what he said, and putting the fan at the wrong end.) What he needs now is to shift the fan so it pulls out of the heater -- or leave it off -- and add a reversed ceiling fan to blow the warm air near the ceiling down the walls to the floor.

[@melanieeichman8766]

I just wanted to say thank you for the video i'm going to try this to keep my green house from freezing....

[@TacticalTuckFard]

I love your office setup. I'm majoring in Alternative Energy Tech so I'm studying different types of solar heaters and PV systems. I'm looking at what designs people have chosen.

[@Aw-ns1qx]

I know it is 9 years later and you may never see this, and I hope you are well! Are you still involved with alternative and renewable energy?

[@terrywbreedlove]

I am buying some land and I am researching off grid technology and I am already collecting used lumber and old windows. I have one old metal door so far trying to find free stuff people are throwing away. Trying to design right into the House passive solar and of course great insulation. I live in a mild climate so lots of windows for light and morning warmth when it is sunny. Thank you for these how to videos I appreciate it since I know nothing about it really

[@nordia1976]

The spay is on the outside of the cans so it cannot affect the air flowing throught them; what I'm wondering about though is if the sealant/glue between the cans releases any toxins when it gets hot in there. That chemical stuff probably has a lot of dissolvants that might get released when it gets hot.

[@durkashurpala]

good on ya for listing your growing pains in this experiment👍

[@DixieGirl9876]

Cool video.A(hand) can opener works well on the cans(both ends) and safer :)Going to install some this fall.

[@brendaharris6290]

You find some fascinating subjects to report on.

[@brentlanyon4654]

I wonder if black PVC pipe would also work? Would save a lot of time in construction, both materials have a specific heat capacity of around 0.9. It loses the cool factor or reduce, reuse, recycle, but could still be useful to take the edge off of cold in an outbuilding. Also, I must comment on the first part of the video. Barney Flats stout is Bahl hornin'!

[@MsChickim]

If you make a long tube out of fabric or some other such thing and put another small fan on the outlet, you could blow the warm air down to the floor where you would want the hot air to be.

[@davidmc2861]

I've seen a few of these thermal can heaters and wonder if just a black plastic 40-55 gallon drum with a 4 inch intake and a 4 inch exhaust would work the same? maybe it would even produce a greater volume of warm air?

[@cherylannhicks5100]

Wow this is a great! I'd like to try making one, thanks for sharing!

[@fluffyjoker69]

even if you keep the hot air coming into the top, you could get a ceiling fan & power that with solar to move the hot air down to circulate it

[@cpcrouchmendez4275]

Its like baking a cake 🎂 some are difficult and others are so simple it makes you laugh 😂 I think 🤔 I’m a terrible cook! I burn everything I try. So, it makes me happy 😃 to see him do what I cannot!

[@Chocotientje]

Genius idea. If he hangs the solar screen sideways, it would be camouflaged against the house, and he could build 2 more into the wall. Using window hinges he could still incline the separate panels towards the sun.

[@ramblinBears]

This is a good DIY idea for cool climates. It seems like pushing the warm air back down to floor level wouldn't be that hard, maybe one extra fan. You'd just want to make sure that the intake and exhaust were on at least opposite sides of the wall the collector rests against.

[@TheCharleseye]

I feel like adding some of those magnifying lenses we used to put on old televisions would increase the efficiency a great deal.

[@CarterFamilyof8]

I havent read all the comments, but I did see where someone else used a beer cozie to grip the can while drilling and it worked like a charm :)

[@bc123132123132]

Would putting a lightweight flap on the hot air pipe help limit cold air? Warm air could potentially expand so as to push the flap open, especially if the solar fan is running. Idk if this would work on a cloudy day, as although there may be heat, it may not be hot enough to create a strong enough air current to push the flap open and would stay stagnant in the apparatus, limiting potential heat. .

[@almollitor]

This is inspiration, if not for the details, then for the willingness to experiment, learn and actually DO something. I'd like to see more details on the solar electric system.

[@whycuds]

Kirsten, you do so many awesome videos.

[@SuperScreamingEagle]

You should have been wearing safety glasses when drilling those cans...=o) This public service announcement brought to you by me.....lol

[@BigLouEastCoastReview]

FYI direct heat to your vinyl records will warp your vinyl... just saying maybe move the records to another place

[@pgestudio75]

It's the cold air intake on the floor next to the vinyl @ 6:30, not the hot air which is being pumped in by the ceiling. Still, if it's a low ceiling it may also be too close to cause vinyl warp.

[@Smuutti]

Maybe he is additionally heating the room by putting the vinyl records in sunshine. Now he only needs to drill more holes in the walls to get the air circulation boosted so he doesn't have to open the door on a sunny day.

[@AnthonyRizzo2]

Passive solar heating relies on the efficiency of the integrated systems that are built. This man has only built one component, which is why he notices only a few degrees difference between the inside and outside temperatures. A few things he could do to increase the difference are as follows: Better all-around Insulation, changing the orientation of the cans from vertical to horizontal, adding a dryer vent tube with a solar powered fan that would draw the hot air from the top to the bottom.

[@haroldgreen1425]

How I built mine. No wood on the frame. I used a double layer of foil faced styrofoam. Now mine is built as a thermoplane. That is it has a plenum from the top to bottom that's insulated from the can layer. Inside the house air is drawn into the bottom plenum and then rises up through the can layer and blows back into the house heating inside air only. If you look online you can find the elevation angle for your location of the sun at noon mid winter. Your heater should be inclined at a ninety degree angle to the sun for the most heat absorption. I used building construction adhesive to glue the cans together. I used a corrugated clear greenhouse panel and had to trim styrofoam end panels to seal against the clear panel. On a good day mine raises air temp by as much as 50 degrees per pass and provides heat for five to six hours daily.

[@Journal2Awakening]

Hey, Im going to try this for my little greenhouse!

[@CC1322001]

Circulate warm air at the ceiling through your panel and return it to the room at floor level. Warm air goes through the panel and gets hotter, because it starts at a higher temp it reaches its maximum sooner.

[@bubblerings]

In my dome tent, I sometimes use a 125 watt Heat Lamp (bulb) hanging from the ceiling... -Makes cold evenings enjoyable for reading, etc.

[@neverbody1]

Some tips: A section of rain gutter keeps cans straight when glueing. Cut a heavy duty L bracket into a sharp point, mount on a board to punch triangle shaped holes in the bottom of cans. No need to make the hole bigger than the pop-top! Don't have cans? Buy black cinefoil and fold accordion style for a heat sink. Use a small solar panel to power a small ducted fan on the COLD side to move air. Sun is out, moves the hot air. Sun not out? No air moves. Corrugated clear lexan is a cheap and strong, use the foam strips to seal against the box.

[@Lumbeelegend]

Ceramic bulb. I was going to say IR bulb, but that red light will drive you crazy if you're in a darker room. I think you can get the ceramic bulbs in different wattages ranging from 60w-250w. I used the IR bulb in the middle of winter when my wife was out of town while I watched television, just to see if it would keep my warm. When I would get up to use the bathroom, or grab something to drink, I forgot the house was FREEZING. Spot heaters work well with solar also.

[@geo4it]

Hey bud, I use an oil filled electric radiator for heat. It can run on 400 or 800 watts. I like it a lot better than the other types because it does not dry out the air so much, continuously radiates heat close to where you can feel it. Research says having a heat next to you is more important than having the whole room warm/hot.

[@kennypyrate7554]

You should make a few of those panels and a thermal battery in the ground and use 12 volt fans like computer fans to circulate the hot air and cold air

[@james10739]

The whole saw is probably alright but you can use a can opener that has a round blade works and gives you a real clean cut on both sides

[@MAIABEHCHEValentine001]

this is the amazing grace we often talk about.

[@malcolmoxley1274]

Hi,to get the heat down to a useful height make a tube out of plastic sheeting ie food bags taped together and attach it to the outlet,the plastic could then be cut to any length you require and let it hang down,the upside is if you bang into it its soft and flexible cheers malc

[@judycarlsen7707]

A Trombe wall from the 70's. Best color for heat absorption would be a dark green for some reason. I remember these from Mother Earth News.

[@McGeeeeesees]

So wouldn't this heat the room more in the summer than winter? You need to find a way to use this to extract hot air in summer and eject it from the office. I'm thinking that what you need is to somehow redirect the air so that it sucks the hot air from the top of the room, and then dispels it into the atmospher, while cooler air is sucked into the bottom. Perhaps you could have an upper vent going to the bottom. Then an exhaust vent outdoors. Switchable with winter configuration.

[@johnfarmakis8518]

If you insulate the bottom hose as well you should get 5 more degrees of warmth.

[@aaabbb-qv4ff]

I understand that cans must be black (to absorb sunlight), and should be put near each other - but shouldn't the background after cans be some kind of aluminum foil - to reflect sun to the cans (if some sunlight get pass cans)?

[@willieboy8798]

good job on video.... you can do the same thing with a fire ...build a fire run the pipe through the quarters and out the top ...no smoke at all! pipe end needs to be below and away from fire by a foot..! both ends are open something fire resistant through fire, iron pipe...

[@bradenharwood]

You might get a little more heat out of it by lining the inside with a reflective surface, such as aluminum foil or sheet metal, then spacing your colums apart just enough to allow the light through. Convection and reflection.

[@usapatriotAK47-HollyBaglioHTV]

GREAT IDEA,,,,,

[@leeames9063]

The more light the object absorbs, the more heat absorbed since light is energy. ... A black object absorbs all wavelengths of light and reflects none. Objects that are white, on the other hand, reflect all wavelengths of light and therefore absorb the least heat.

[@iskendir]

I'm pretty sure it would be better with the fan sucking the warm air into the room. Blowing the cold air out may cause negative pressure in the room drawing cold air in from elsewhere as well as positive pressure in the frame which may result in heat-loss through any unsealed parts.

[@ValueYourTimeOnEarth]

İskender İskendersson I disagree. There is an intake and opening in the house the air is circulating. Whatever air is sucked out is blown back in. If you had a fire place then you might have negative pressure inside as air is always being sucked out through the chimney.

[@inhocsigno9151]

Good on you for doing this. I'd be nervous about silicone sealant, how long before it cures and does not out gas? Someone made 3 holes in the cans with spikes. As maybe the rougher opening would allow the heat to transfer from the can to the air passing thru. Cans are good as they pick up heat as the sun moves thru its arc. I would like to try black window screen, maybe crumpled up a bit. Metal should be better than fiberglass.

[@korratheaustralianshepherd5804]

for the sake of the cold air vent you likely would have wanted to install a fan or a device to cause forced movement of air considering both the intake and exhaust ports are located at the same height from the ground. An alternative would be to install a series of hurricane vents on the exhaust manifold that would have better regulated the pressure of the rising air and allowed better heat transfer prior to exhaust. Great project overall - thanks for sharing the idea!

[@jameshumphrey9939]

by god woman its not a photovoltaic panel ! cheers mate !

[@OptimisticStation]

I want to try this for a screened in porch, making each wall like the panel box shown in this video.

[@alankingwell]

Great little video guys ,,,well done

[@billgulley2064]

Put it on a south facing wall, the warm air intake goes through the wall at the top, at the bottom of the wall is the cool air return back to the unit .

[@The0ldg0at]

Since you are using fans you can reverse the flow in the panel (top to bottom) and let convection do the job of moving the heat from the floor to the ceiling in the room.

[@sandrarodriguez-vs6zo]

love it . great video . thanks can't wait to try it

[@concrete230]

I also see alot of comments about what you can and should do, i just wanted to comment, on the fact, that this is a cool video. Cant wait to see the next project you plan on doing.