Solar Heater Trial

These are all of the supplies.

  Steve and I have seen several videos on YouTube on how to make a pop can solar heater.  I thought I would try my hand at a small one, that could hang or be taped to the inside of a south facing window. 

 This solar heater was made from a piece of corrugated plastic we got free.  I used 5 (16oz) pop can's, wire mesh, clear plastic, duck tape, and heat proof black paint.  (See photo above)

Below I put hole in the bottom of the can's to let air flow threw them.

I made a box our of the wire mesh and corrugated plastic.  The box made from the plastic was made larger.  I made a small intake whole in the bottom of the plastic box and in the top of the box opposite side of the bottom of the box.  I used duck tape to tape the plastic box together.  I sprayed everything black then used the tape again to tape clear plastic to the top.

The pictures below show the finished product mounted into the window.  Sorry the outside view isn't very good. 

Now the big question would be, how well is it working?  This heater is a small one, it is 11inches by 151/2 inches. It is mounted on the inside of the window, the air going into it yesterday was 65 degrees and coming out at 78 degrees.   Today we have overcast skies.

The air going into the box is at 64 degrees.

The thermometer is below.

 

 

Below is a thermometer in the out take of the solar heater.

The color at the bottom of the thermometer shows the out take temperature at 72 degrees. 

This solar heater has no fan, I am using the premise that heat rises naturally.  We have an 8 degree difference on a cloudy day and a 14 degree difference on a sunny day.  Yesterday the back of the box felt warm so we are getting some heat loss through the plastic, possible making the out take temperatures lower.  But then again heat is heat and this is basically free.   

I think we will be trying it on a larger scale in a different window.