Experimental Solar DIY (and commercial) Projects
Solar and renewable energy ideas and projects that look promising (or at least interesting).
One of the appealing aspects of the solar thermal area is that "garage inventors" can make meaningful advances. Some of the factors that make it possible to keep coming up with new ideas and innovations in this centuries old field are:
If you have a concept that you think should be here -- please send it in!
Directory for this page: Note: New section on measurement techniques for solar thermal experimenters.
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Solar Inventor Resources | |
New Inventions in Low-Cost Solar Heating
William Shurcliff |
![]() The picture here is one of a hundred concepts in the book, each interesting and well explained. |
David Delaney's Site David's site has gone offline, but still available on the Wayback Machine: https://web.archive.org/web/20181103113700/http://davidmdelaney.com/ Original Website: http://davidmdelaney.com/ |
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Phase Change Materials Homepage
http://freespace.virgin.net/m.eckert/index.htm One PCM supplier |
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Potential
DIY Phase Change Material for Heat Storage
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Nick Pine posted this note describing a phase change material for heat storage that was developed by George Lane some years ago. It appears to have some potential for use as a low cost, home made heat storage material in solar heating systems. |
Electric Bicycle Experiments
http://electric-bicycle-experiments.com/
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Backyard Inventor Projects -- modest to moderate size projects that any of us could think about working on | |
Looking for a good overwindow collector design... |
It has a ways to go, but maybe you have some suggestions to make it better? Lets hear from you.
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An Easy to Build Earth-Sun Simulator for Optimizing Reflectors and Shawdowo Studies...
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It allows you to see the sun and shadows for any location on the earth and any season and for any time of day. By rotating the turntable you can quickly play the sun over your model for a full day and see the sun and shade patterns. You can take readings on the model with a light meter and get a quantitative idea how much (for example) a reflector is increasing radiation. |
Waterbag Solar Water Heating Collector Using Inflatable Film Cover and Soap Bubble Insulation.... |
It uses an inflatable cylinder made from poly film over a water bag heat storage. Soap bubbles are used for night insulation. |
Off The Shelf Solar DHW -- Cheap and Easy DIY Solar Water Heating
All the details on the prototype...
Update March 2013: A glazed version of this system...
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![]() This is a four season drain back system. While the parts are inexpensive, they are high quality and the life and reliability should be comparable to commercial systems. Total cost is projected to be about $1300, and the system qualifies for federal and some state rebates. The system is in the design and prototyping stage -- comments and suggestions are most welcome. All the details on the prototype... |
Building
and Using a Blower Door -- A DIY Blower Door you can Build for $30 All the details on our homemade blower door... |
![]() The writeup gives all the details on building and using the blower door, ![]() With a little scrounging, the blower door and instrumentation can be built for $30. |
DIY Blower Door Plans -- North Dakota Sate University Extension
URL for NDSU Extension service -- many free plans...
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I ran into these plans after building the blower door just above -- not sure which is easier or cheaper or better.
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A $6/sqft solar
collector using Copper tubing and Aluminum fins
Gary This collector is an offshoot of the collector just below. It uses the same scheme to transfer heat from the aluminum fin to the heat transfer tubing, but copper is used instead of PEX for the tubing. This adds a modest amount to the cost per sqft, but provides performance that is quite close to all copper commercial collectors. |
![]() The fin to tube thermal connection is similar to the collector above, but copper is used for the tubing instead of PEX. This provides performance within 4% of an all copper collector in an easy to build package. Extensive build, testing, and performance information is provided...
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A $4/sqft solar
collector using PEX tubing and Aluminum Fins
Gary
There has been a lot of interest in a collector that uses PEX tubing rather than copper to convey the heat transfer fluid. Here is a cut a collector that does this -- with careful attention to the PEX/fin joint, it can perform surprisingly well. |
![]() Extensive build,
testing, and performance information is provided... |
A $1000 solar
water heating
Gary
This is a cut at a system that performs well, lasts a long time,
and is easy to build. |
![]() It combines one of the two collector designs just above with a
very simple drain back scheme. A unique heat exchanger that is
inexpensive and very efficient is used. |
Serpentine Drainback Solar Space Heating Project and Design Manual... |
Several other unique features on the system, including a partitioned tank for more efficiency. |
How to make collector fins and evaluate collector fin designs | ![]() |
The Sungrabber Unglazed Solar Water
Heating System Description and some thoughts... |
![]() It appears to offer some advantage for milder winter climates. Description and some thoughts... |
Build a Solar
Attic, Rob, www.IWillTry.org
www.iwilltry.org/b/projects/solar-attic/
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![]() Rob describes in detail the first stag ![]() He will now experiment with various sort of collector designs behind the glazing. Add a comment into his blog to encourage him to keep us up to date on how he is doing! (thanks to Erik for suggesting this link) |
Thermosyphon
Solar Water Heating System Tests, Gary
Test of the PEX/Aluminum collector... Test of the Copper/Aluminum collector...
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There are some questions here for a passing thermosyphon expert to answer for extra credit. |
Converting
a Clothes Dryer to Use Solar Heated Attic Air All the details on Randy's solar dryer conversion... |
![]() This cuts the cost and energy use and CO2 emissions to do a dryer load by a factor of five! |
Solar
Cooking After Dark -- A Stored Heat Solar Cooker Full construction details... |
![]() ![]() Mik is looking for ideas on improving the prototype. Full construction details... |
Solar Heated Livestock Watering Stock
Tank Prototype
Gary NOTE that this project has progressed through a couple new versions -- see this section for the latest "production" version... |
![]() The usual approach around here to keeping stock tanks from freezing is to use an electric stock tank heater, which uses a lot of electricity. This approach might eliminate or greatly reduce the need to such heaters and the cost and GHG's that go with them. |
DIY Heat Recovery Ventilator (HRV) Details on the DIY HRV ...HRV/ShurcliffHRV.htm This is another brief description of a potential DIY HRV from the RedRok site... |
![]() The description is from a book on HRVs for homes written by William Shurcliff in 1982 that gives a very readable description of how HRVs work and quite a bit of design information. If you know of any other DIY HRV designs, please le me know. |
Optimal
Solar Air Collector Design
Gary |
![]() These collectors have the potential for 1 to 2 year paybacks on material costs in cold climates. |
Horizontal
Pond Domestic Hot Water Heater
Gary and Nick
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![]() The goal is to provide a full four season solar water heater with the simplicity and low cost of a batch solar heater. It is looking promising, but still some issues to resolve. Comments welcome. |
SunCache
Solar Water Heating -- Harpiris Energy
Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dnKD0A3p7xk SRCC OG-300 certification results for CA zone 3:
This design was developed by the Davis Energy Group in an effort to lower the price of solar water heaters. The unique design allows more use of plastics resulting in a lighter and less expensive design. |
![]() The retail price for DIY installations is estimated to be $2200. The collector has been SRCC certified, and will qualify for
incentive programs that require SRCC certification. There is a
CARB program that CA residents may want to check on. Note that the freeze tolerant temperature for this collector is listed as 20F, so it is not intended for cold climates. The testing indicates a savings for about 75 therms of NG per year for a family of 4. |
Greenward Ridge
Vent Water Heating System
http://nuenergyalternatives.com/
Article with a bit of detail...
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![]() ![]() more (including a diy
alternative)... |
A unique solar
water heating design using flexible tubing compressed between
absorber plates
Full details:
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![]() This new design uses silicone tubing that is compressed
(squashed) between two aluminum sheets. This is a unique approach
to providing a good thermal connection between the water carrying
tube and the aluminum absorber plate. |
Double Play -- An
Experimental Solar Heating and Cooling System Steve Baer Roof
Integrated Solar Absorbers: The Measured |
Roof Integrated Solar Absorbers Home Power magazine article, issue 102 This innovative system uses unglazed collectors that are in The pdf report provides detailed performance measurements from the FSEC & NREL. |
Theoretical
Evaluation of the NightCool Nocturnal Radiation Cooling Concept Danny S. Parker Florida Solar Energy Center (FSEC) New report on the NightCool performance in test buildings: Daily performance of the test buildings, Note: I would tend to NightCool in the Experimental area, so, if you go after this, bear in mind you may suffer the "being a pioneer" learning curve. Please let us know how it comes out. |
![]() A simulation model is used to predict performance in various climates -- the scheme works very well in dry areas, and fairly well even in very difficult moist-warm climates (e.g. Florida). One of the attractive features of this system is that the roof is very conventional -- no massive ponds or moving insulation. There is the potential in some climates to use the same metal roofing/attic system for space heating in colder weather. The new test report shows the results for two 10' by 16' structures that were built to compare NightCool performance to conventional AC in Florida. Very interesting and promising results. Tests of a a simple dehumidification system using desiccants are now underway. |
The Rotating Solar Boiler
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Simple
Pool Heating Idea
Gary |
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Solar Shed for Space Heating
House
Gary
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Night Air Thermal Mass Cooling Using Water Barrels
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![]() This is a scheme that I am experimenting with to cool my shop. It basically blows cool night time air over a collection of 50 gallon barrels filled with water to store "coolth" in the water. The method looks like it might provide cooling with a COP of 42 (SEER 140) or more! While I am using the scheme in my shop, it could be used to cool any interior space. The basic question is: does it make sense to use a fan forced flow of cool night air over thermal mass to store "coolth" for later use in daytime cooling? Details... |
Evapro-radiative Cooling
Thoughts
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![]() And, some thoughts on practical cooling and heating applications using this scheme. Full Story ... |
Full
Scale Version of Evapro-radiative Cooling System
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![]() It uses our existing solar space heating system as a base, and manages to add the cooling function with very little additional work or cost.
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![]() Its basically free cooling. All the details on Rick's cooling setup... |
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Nathan's Low
Tech, High COP Air Conditioner
http://njhurst.com/blog/01265701097
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![]() It occurs to me that this could be coupled with the Evapro-radiative cooling just above to make a very pretty cool system. |
Experimental
Solar Collector Made from Twinwall Panel
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![]() I'm a bit skeptical of the temperature capability, leak sealing, and life of this panel, but its certainly an interesting idea. Finding a twinwall that holds up to long term exposure to hot water may be a issue -- GE says that polycarb does not. (thanks to Brent for finding this) |
The Quest for an R15 Thermal Window Shade | ![]() Such shades have the promise of greatly reducing window heat loss, while still being convenient to use. |
An
Over and Around the Window Solar Air Heating Collector First Cut
Prototype
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![]() This is a simple collector that could be installed seasonally. The collector must, of course, be significantly larger than the window itself. |
Combined Solar Collector and
Window Shade
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Flow Organizer | |
The Integral Passive Solar
Water Heater Book, David Bainbridge
Even though the batch water heater design is an old one, I think there is a great deal of opportunity for improvement. How about an all season, $300 solar water heater with a payback of one year -- this seems reachable to me with some refinement of the designs. This book is book is a great place to get up to speed on the potential. |
![]() The book has a great mix of how-to and engineering design information -- great for builders and experimenters. Thanks to David, the full content of the book is available here as a free download. |
Low
Tech Garage/Barn Heater (pdf)
Gary
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Solar Water Collector from CPVC Pipe
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![]() Mixed results. |
The Rutgers Solar Heating
System for Greenhouses Mears, Roberts, Simpkins, and Kendall Rutgers University The Rutgers Solar Heating System for Greenhouse - 1977 (0.8 MB pdf) Greenhouse Solar Heating-1981 (2.5MB pdf)
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![]() While I do not know of anyone who has tried this as a pool heater, it seems to me it might work well, and it would be very inexpensive -- perhaps $2 per square foot? The papers give information on a several greenhouse energy schemes, so you have to wade through all this to find the details on building the collector. The collectors described in the paper a quite large, but could be scaled down. Note that even though this is a very simple collector, there are details that you must get right for it to hold together -- so read all the construction notes. If you build one of these PLEASE let me know -- Gary A number of other interesting commercial greenhouse related papers at the Rutgers Horticultural Engineering Website: http://aesop.rutgers.edu/~horteng/ |
Solar Closets and Sunspaces
Nick Pine and Paul Bashus http://www.ece.vill.edu/~nick/solar/solar.html
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DIY Grey Water Heat Exchanger for Showers...
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Grey
Water Heat Exchanger In A Barrel
Nick Pine (with a little help from Gary)
Canada study and test of grey water heat recovery system for a residence ( 3 MB pdf) |
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The Amazing Heat
Scavenger Experiment
www.voltscommissar.net/ ... .pdf
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Recovering Heat
From Shower Drain Water for Space Heating
www.builditsolar.com/Experimental/SewerPipeHeatRecovery/Sewer.htm |
![]() Data from a small test to assess the feasibility of the scheme is presented.
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An Approach
to Developing a Very Low Energy Use Shower
A odd ball, but very low energy shower...
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Recirculating Showers -- Yet another way
to save shower water and energy
Thoughts on a very efficient shower design... Ken's implementation of a recirculating, high flow shower... |
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Integral
Stagnation Temperature Control For Solar Collectors (pdf) S.J. Harrison, Q. Lin, and L.C.S Mesquita Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering, Queen's University, Kingston, ON, Canada SESCI 2004 Conference |
![]() A passive approach to automatically decreasing the stagnation temperature of solar collectors. An air channel behind the absorber plate is used to ventilate the collector when the temperature exceeds a set value. A valve at the top of the air channel opens automatically at a set temperature. |
http://www.tdc.ca/bubblegreenhouse.htm
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Solar Bubble Build
www.solarbubblebuild.com/build_images13.php
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How to Build
a Heliostat for Solar Heating and Lighting, Rob, www.IWillTry.org
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![]() ![]() Rob's heliostat -- reflects solar light and heat into a window
in your house. |
Inflatable Heliostat
Download full report pdf (3.5 mb) Mithra and Gary
Surya -- a cylindrical tracking inflatable concentrating PV solar collector... Patent for the Surya... (pdf) |
NEW This is the follow on version of the inflatable heliostat design that uses a tracking inflatable reflector to concentrate energy on a line of PV cells ---> |
RIC Enterprises ...
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![]() The Inventions page on Mithra's site has some very interesting ideas. |
Paper on PV powered
irrigation system has a unique(?) combination of fixed reflectors
and 1 axis tracking to increase PV panel output
Helikson, Haman, and Baird The Paper (pdf)
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![]() Does this seem like a good idea? |
Solar
Heated Home Using An Attached Greenhouse and Woodburning Stove
David Mears The Paper (pdf)
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![]() Seems like an interesting concept. Test data for a real house is provided. |
Papercrete Construction
www.papercrete.com/papercrete.html oikos.com/library/papercrete/sandshouse.html www.northcoast.com/~tms/papercrete.html
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![]() ![]() PaperCrete is a building material made from a mixture of recycled paper, sandy dirt, and a little cement. It has an R value of 2.8 per inch, good strength, and is lightweight and inexpensive. ![]() ![]() |
Roof Sprinkler Cooling System, John
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![]() Added a description of another similar system 3/6/07 |
An Experimental Trickle Down Solar Water Heating System
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Lu has designed, built and tested a version of the Thomason trickle down collector with some unique features. The system includes a unique trickle down collector, a storage tank with a new liner design, and an innovative version of a copper heat exchanger.
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The mb-soft compost heating schemes | ![]() |
Interesting New Projects | |
Drake Landing -- Community
with Solar Seasonal Storage for Water and Space Heating
Brochure: |
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Vertigro
Oil From Algae
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![]() The video has the best description of the process. |
MIT's
Warm Light Wall System
http://www.eebt.org/Trombe.html
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![]() The wall uses a layer of aerogel insulation (which transmits light) and a glass block that is apparently filled with water to act as thermal mass. It appears to have an insulation layer on the inside as well (to control the heat transfer rate to the interior?). It may provide some combination of solar gain, light, and storage in one unit. As usual with solar decathlon projects, its hard to find any details or performance -- if you find something, please let me know. |
Road Energy System -- solar
heating from your parking lot http://www.invisibleheating.co.uk/road-energy.htm
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![]() No detail on what weather conditions lead to successful heat recover, but maybe they will tell us how its working out in a while. Seems like it might work well for public swimming pools with large parking lots? |
Elisolar
Thermal Shad Structures
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Eco
Wave Power -- Simple Wave Power Generator www.ecowavepower.com/ |
![]() The designs are simple and might form the basis for a simple DIY wave power generator, or at least provide some ideas. |
Cable
supported heliostat from Solaflect Energy |
![]() This new design by Solaflect Energy supports the heliostat mirrors using mostly tension cables rather than the traditional heavy bending structure. Working on more efficient heliostat designs seems like a good backyard inventor challenge. |
Magenn Power Air Rotor System
An Helium inflated wind generator As of Feb 2020, the Magenn site does not appear to exist anymore, but Googling Magenn wind turbine brings up some descriptions
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Night Sky Roof Water Spray Cooling
system www.pnl.gov/TechReview/whitecap/whitecap.html EERE report (pdf) http://www.davisenergy.com/NSFS10060.pdf The first link above provides the most complete design information, and
describes three different roof spray system designs. |
![]() foot of roof surface) to a final temperature as much as 12 degrees below the minimum night air temperature." Seems like a very promising way to reduce
the energy cost of cooling. The 5600 sqft prototype described in the
first link achieved an EER of 149. |
Solar Thermal Electric Power Plant http://pesn.com/2006/02/12/9600234_Schott_solar_thermal_plant/
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MICHAEL JANTZEN Designer http://www.walrus.com/~ddprod/michaeljantzen/index.html
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Mobile Window Thermal Test (MoWiTT) Facility http://windows.lbl.gov/facilities/Mowitt/Default.htm
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Interesting New Products | |
Solarcentury solar thermal and solar electric
roof tiles http://www.solarcentury.co.uk/installers-and-roofers/products/
The data sheet, brochure, and video show pretty good installation detail. |
![]() ![]() The thermal versions appear to come in pre-plumbed horizontal runs of several tiles. (thanks to Doug for finding this) May 2011: It looks like the solar thermal version is no longer offered? |
Advanced Thermal Solar System With Heat Storage
For Residential House Space Heating (pdf) Kazimierz Szymocha SESCI 2005 Conference
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Vacuum Insulation Panels www.vacuuminsulation.co.uk/index.html More on vacuum panels:
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![]() They are made by placing a gas tight
film over a porous but rigid material. The air is then evacuated from
the porous core to make the high R value panel. |
Aerogel Insulation http://aerogel.jpl.nasa.gov/about_aerogel.htm http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aerogel
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Aerogel is a rigid, low thermal conductivity material that holds great
promise for very high R values in very little space if the price can be
brought down.
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Hot Harry Gough Industries |
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Combined PV - Air Collector as Heat Pump Air Pre-heater H. A. Zondag |
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PVT Solar, Inc -- Echo Combined PV and Thermal System
Demo Video -- this is probably the best overview of how the system works... Some pdf downloads that provide a little (very little) detail... An Inhabitat article that has some pictures of the system... There is an SRCC report on a "Cleanline PV" that may be this system...
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![]() The PVT website does its best to not provide much of any useful detail on how the system is built -- the links to the left are the best I could find -- let me know if you find a more detailed description. From a thermal point of view, the system is basically an unglazed collector that takes in ambient air and heats it all the way up to temperatures good for space heating (most solar heating systems get a head start by heating room temp air up). I would think that this might work well in some climates, but the combination of unglazed collectors and heating all the way from ambient would seem to limit its use in cold climates? The SRCC report (link at left) would seem to confirm this if it is for the same system -- the efficiency curve intercept is 0.24. This is a very simple concept, and could certainly be implemented on a DIY basis. While the thermal performance is likely to be well under a good dedicated thermal collectors, the extra "free" thermal energy would likely be more than the electrical energy the PV array generates. Would love to hear from anyone who has one of these systems, or know more about them. |
SolarWall PV/T
A Discovery Channel video on the system...
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![]() This is a variation on SolarWall's well know transpired solar air heating collector system. In this version, PV panels are spaced over the transpired collector absorbers. The SolarWall collectors draw in the heated air behind the PV panels. It would be interesting to know how the thermal efficiency of this PV
version of the solar wall compares to a regular solar wall. I would
think the addition of the PV panels may reduce the thermal efficiency of the
SolarWall because PV panels would not be as efficient an absorber as the
SolarWall absorber they are shading? |
Sunflower 250 -- Concentrating PV, Energy Innovations
www.energyinnovations.com/sunflower250.html
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![]() "Now standing at a little over five feet square and five feet high, the 25X Sunflower™ is able to meet our targets for both energy generation and cost. Each of the 25 1'x1' mirrors is separately aligned, and yet all are attached to and moved together by an undercarriage controlled by just two motors. The receiver is approximately the size of one mirror and contains a collection of small cells that are wired together to produce electricity. It is backed by fins that dissipate heat and keep the cells operating within 30°C of ambient temperature at all times." |
Greenway -- a PV system designed for DIY
installation
A little more detail on the system: |
![]() This seems somewhat similar to the Enphase system, but with even more straight forward installation. Its hard to tell how far along they are, but the do have some gov and private funding. |
Home
CoGeneration Units Honda Version:
Article on home CoGeneration: The Marathon Version: Infinia: An assessment of CHP from ToolBase.org: Some early testing in US: Capstone Micro Turbine -- turbines for CHP, hybrid vehicles, power
generation, ... |
![]() As seems to be usual with any new technology to reduce energy use and pollution; availability and adoption in the US is slow. |
Whisper Gen -- CoGeneration http://www.whispergen.com/index.cfm
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![]() The website provides quite a bit of detail. Not currently available in the US? |
Some Test Results This just a place to put the results from some random tests that were run to settle some burning issue. |
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DIY Solar Air Heating Collectors: Pop Can vs Screen Absorbers... |
Detail on: - Collector basics and measuring performance
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Testing the Transmittance of Some Common Solar Collector Glazing Materials |
It also looks at loss in transmittance with age. |
TMeasuring Heat Transfer Coefficient for Solar Heating (Cooling) Systems Using Water Container |
This heat transfer coefficient is important for estimating the amount of heat that can be added to or removed from water heat storage containers by flowing hot or cold air over them.
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Stagnation test on vertical double glazed collector... |
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Comparing the Performance of Two DIY Solar Water Heating Collectors -- CPVC vs Copper
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![]() ![]() The performance of the CPVC collector was good, and I think that this CPVC design offers another option for DIY solar collectors. The CPVC collector is easy to build and would make a good first solar project. All the details on CPVC collector performance test... |
CPVC, PEX and PEX-AL-PEX in a short elevated temperature test |
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A Sun Simulator for Collector Testing The details... |
![]() This is an active project and I could use some help on the reflector design -- have a look and see if you have some ideas... |
Deep Mesh Solar Air Heating Collector -- Test 1
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![]() The higher collector output temperatures are helpful in systems with heat storage as more heat can be stored in a smaller space with higher temperatures. |
Testing on our
shop heating thermosyphon collector -- including efficiency, flow rate, and
effect of smaller vents... |
![]() Testing includes the performance effect of reducing vent size, and measurements of efficiency and flow rate.... |
Air flow distribution for a horizontal solar air heating collector with screen absorber |
![]() Done with IR pictures of the glazing. Details... |
Testing a conductive silicone in the collector fin to tubing thermal bonding. Test of using conductive silicone in the fin to tube bond... |
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Twinwall Polycarbonate vs Plexiglas Glazing for Solar Collectors
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Pop Cans for Solar Water Hating Collector Fins? |
Details... |
Solar Air Heating Collector Performance Tests -- Which DIY Collector Design
is Most Efficient? |
![]() ![]() Scott and I did independent testing of several designs, with each design tested side by side with the same baseline collector. The surprising outcome was that the simplest and cheapest design did very well. |
Measuring
Sunlight at Earth's Surface: Build Your Own Pyranometer, David Brooks www.instesre.org/construction/pyranometer/pyranometer.htm Update: I built one of these kits and tested it against my Apogee Pyranometer for recording solar radiation during collector tests....
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![]() Material on how to order and assemble a $20 pyranometer kit. |
My new
Thermal Imaging Camera Some tests and impressions of my new thermal imaging camera... |
![]() They have been almost prohibitively expense, but over the last few years have come down a lot as some entry level lines have been introduced with lower prices that have been steadily dropping. The lowest priced ones are now a bit over $1000 -- still a lot, but much better than $10,000. I recently took the plunge and got a FLIR IR camera. My impressions of the FLIR so far are here... |
Heat Transfer in Solar Air Heating Collectors Made from Gutter Downspouts... |
![]() If heat transfer to the back side of the collector is efficient, then the effect heat transfer area from absorber to air is significantly increased, and this should improve the efficiency of the collector. |
More PV Array Shading Tests All the details on PV shading test... |
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Effect of Tree Shade on Solar Collector Efficiency AND A Simple Way to Test All Kinds of Collector Design & Placement Variations |
![]() This same method could be used to compare glazing materials, compare different collector orientations, ... and all sorts of other variables. Its simple, practical, and accurate. |
Screen
Absorber Test... A Second
Set of Screen Absorber Tests... |
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Adventures in Measuring Airflow for a Solar Collector... |
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Effect of partial snow cover on PV panel output |
![]() Power output of cleared panels is compared to the panels with some snow. |
Test of a Collector with Horizontal Risers
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It has been suggested that this arrangement might work better for the large and wide collectors that DIYers build for space heating. |
Best paint for solar collector absorbers
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![]() Idea being that sample that reaches the highest temperature will have better performance as a solar collector absorber finish. |
Variation in Riser Flow for Wide Solar Water Heating Collectors
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Using Attic Heat Logged Attic Temperatures
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![]() It also provides long term plots of my attic temperature, which is probably typical of cold many cold northern US climates. These give some feel for the potential. An FSEC paper on measured attic temperatures... |
Effect of edge gaps on the performance
of insulating shutters and shades, William shurcliff, Thermal Shutters and shades, 1980 Details ... (pdf) |
![]() Extracted from "Thermal Shutters and Shades", William Shurcliff with permission. |
Effect of vent
size on thermosyphon collectors ...
Gary |
![]() The airflow through thermosyphon collectors is driven only by the buoyancy change of the air heated in the collector, and is sensitive to changes in the collector flow path. |
Small panel tests to compare collector designs
Follow on small panel tests: |
![]() It does not require much in the way of instrumentation, and it appears to produce solid results. |
Large plastic pipe coil as heat exchanger
Gary |
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Serpentine Collector Drain Back Testing, Gary
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![]() Basically the tests attempt to determine if a serpentine collector can be used in a drain back system. |
EPDM Collector
Test
Gary |
![]() While the results were not good enough to use it on the Solar Shed, they were not totally discouraging, and I think that the idea has some promise. There have been successful commercial collectors made from EPDM in the past, so there is probably some combination that works. A lower tilt angle would also help with the water spread problem. The appeal of an EPDM collector is that the cost could be south of $3 per sqft -- compared to $30 per sqft for commercial collectors. |
Transmittance of
Corrugated Glazing
Gary |
![]() Here is a little to test to find out. |
Temperature
Stratification in Tall Rooms
Gary |
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Flow Organizer
Gary
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Radiant Floor Heat Spreader Plates Test
DIY Press to make Heat Spreader Plates Gary |
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Shower Temperature Drop
Gary |
![]() This drop is of interest because it is heat that cannot be recovered using a grey water heat exchanger: Shower Temperature Drop A shower design that might reduce the temperature drop: http://www.sunfrost.com/efficient_shower.html |
Effect of Air Filter on Thermosyphon Collector Air Flow |
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Optics Experiments On The Cheap http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uX9Z-nsUHiA
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![]() It allows you to quickly and easily fully visualize how a given mirror shape will do in focusing incoming sun. It allows you to very quickly see the effect of mirror shape changes. While the video is aimed at refining solar cooker designs, the technique could be used for any kind of concentrating solar application. |