DIY project - Solar Heat Collector and Storage

[KLC]

USING THE SUN TO HEAT YOUR PLACE

So I am building my own cabin-trailer and going off the grid this year. I really want to use solar power wherever I can as I'm building this cabin. One advantage of building your own shelter is that you can plan alternative sources of energy, heat, and water storage into your building plans. So I recently bought some lumber, tools, etc and set out to build my cabin trailer section by section until its done. I chose to start at the back where I plan to house the solar heating collector I built (see pic below)

Solar heating is a great idea if your interested just google it. Basically you construct yourself a "solar collector" something dark colored...something that absorbs heat....it kinda looks like a solar panel but its not producing electricity...it's producing heat.....like the way a closed car produces lots of heat on a hot summers day. Anyways ...the idea is too collect the heat....and then direct it into a heat storage box. You can store heat in a variety of ways, its your choice. (think of an attic) Some choose to store the heat in a hot water tank...then pipe the hot-water thru radiant floor heating. Some choose to store the heat in a plywood box thats well insulated. Some bury huge heat storage boxes below the frost line...and store up all the summer heat and use it over the winter. It's pretty fascinating check it out yourself on google.

So I decided to make a solar heating system for my cabin-trailer ....and because I plan on growing food and then dehydrating it...I decided to incorporate my home-made dehydrator ontop of my heat storage box. So with the solar collector I built, I will capture the sun's radiant heat, store it, then direct it too my dehydrator (on top) with small solar powered fans. These are the beginning stages....

HEAT STORAGE BOX ( with black collector on side)

DE-HYDRATOR (homemade - bamboo shelf)

I know it probably looks confusing now...but I'll keep posting pictures in my blog as this project progresses and keep ya posted on how it goes. I can tell you this. I tested my solar heat collector this week. It's all black ....and I placed it in front of my patio door (direct sunlight) I placed a small fan at the bottom to pull the "heated" air into my livingroom. I also used the ceiling fan to keep the heat from staying up at the ceiling. For 2 days I did not have to turn on my electric heat. YEEEEEAH!! The sun provided enough heat to keep my apartment toasty warm all day & night....The trick is collecting ....and re-directing it too the cold spots in your house/apt. which is usually the floor.

Keep this in mind...this solar heat collector does not work on cloudy days...thats where the heat storage box comes in handy. Apparently water is the best way to store heat. But I don't want hot water heating in this cabin-trailer cause I need the heated air to dehydrate fruits & veggies! But perhaps some of you out there may be interested in solar hot water heating systems.

I'll keep ya all posted.

[KLC]

right on dude! I would appreciate that very much :) Do you have any blocking diodes?? I was going to order a couple off ebay from some dude, but if you got some laying around let me know...I'll buy em off you!!!!!!!!! I'll message ya later ...peace :)

[KLC]

here's the back of the charge cont.




also...I meant to say 12V battery not DC battery hahahaha eergh! so confusing sometimes~

[KLC]

hey charles!! of course I'm going to the solar panels!!! weeeeeeee. I have some broken cells on order to "play" with before I build my panel though cause I'm not sure I understand the soldering process of series & parallel etc etc....sooooo I thought I would test my skills using some cells to power some CPU fans for the heat collector.

Also...I'm starting to stockpile some LED's from various electronics I'm gutting out for various parts then I plan to make my own LED lightbulbs that'll be solarcharged.

and for the rest of the cabin-trailer I'm going to attempt to make the bigger panels...I'll start with a 60 or 80 watt panel. The guy I ordered the cells from ...sent me some tab wire as well...so it should be interesting. I'll post the projects as I do them :)

I just won this charge controller on ebay...had to bat people with a stick to win it haha



I'll be buying my DC batteries next month. Theres a local company here called magnacharge battery...for all your power needs! hahaha anyways they specialize in golfcart and forklift battery systems so I thought I would grab a couple of those. Got any other suggestions???????

and neglect my freedom fighting infowarrior duties .....NEVER! I've been working the youtube crowd...alot of AJ freedom fightin constitution haters on there you know. And when I make vids I slip a little 12.160 pimp in there to encourage others to come here.

One more question about the appliances you power on your batteries....what size fridge do you have?? I was thinking of getting a bar fridge ...but then I seen these cute little 12v mobi-coolers...and its tiny...but I don't use my fridge for much things (milk, bread, butter, eggs) I have this big ass fridge in my apartment that sits empty because I don't store huge amounts of food in it. So I'm wondering what size fridge is a good one to have and how much power it takes? enquiring minds want to know!


JAMES : do you have any pdf's on how to solder the wire on broken solar cells?? I wouldn't mind having a peak at it...I've read 2 and they both did it differently. There's something important about wiring up in a series and then parallel...something about increasing volts & amps. I read that higher volts are for things like starting an engine whereas increasing amps ...increases the current to power smaller appliances...so from what I could gather ....wiring up the panels in series / parallel is of utmost importance....but I can't seem to completely grasp it with the tutorials I've seen.

[James aka adap2k]

I dig solar too. I read all I can. When I ever get the setup going I might need your help.

I have some great plans on pdf files somewhere. I will try to remember to find them in my stack of hundereds of unlabeled cds and dvds...lol

[KLC]

your welcome! I've been reading sooooo much stuff on solar energy I think I'm going to be an expert soon haha. I got interested in 2007 and now in 2009 I think I finally got enough information to start building my own solar system and get right off the grid. There's loads of DIY projects online which inspired & encouraged me to do this.....so I got inspired to document my progress as well...because my project will be unique to my needs....like dehydrating food.

[James aka adap2k]

I love this stuff, thanks Kim.