COP 38~77 Heater! Cansolair

[Aaron]

Watch this vid - this kind of system has been around a long time but
never saw one made from pop cans. They even make them nice looking.

Daily Planet

Somewhere in Newfoundland!

31 watts for the blower and the rest is free input from the sun.
1200 watts of heat you get out is: 1200/31 = COP 38.7 and
up to 2400/31 = COP 77.4

Here's the company's homepage: Cansolair Solar Panels - FREE Heating without the Pollution


Model RA 240 SOLAR MAX

Energy Usage Watts31
Heat Energy Output Watts 1200 – 2400

[Zooty]

The only problem is during the day when the sun is hot, who needs to warm up a building? What happens at night when you need it the most? If we could directly convert the heat to electrical energy efficiently then there might be something there.

[Aaron]

solar heat

In the winter when the sun is out, the house is still freezing cold and will
benefit from this system since the soda can panel is receiving infrared
from the sun even in cold temps.

At night, you have a point but this system isn't marketed as a system all
by itself. It says it can reduce the amount of fuel used for example by one
tank of oil in a winter. That is significant since it would cost me about $700
to fill a 220 gallon tank. So, it is a supplement or actually if it works that
good in the daytime, the oil heat or otherwise supplements this when it
cannot work at night.

I use wood stove heat primarily and my oil burner only kicks on when
the wood goes out and temp drops while sleeping.

To store the heat - it is difficult to transfer heat to electric in any easy
way. It can be done but not practical at the moment I don't think.

In my opinion, I'd take the sun's heat to heat large tanks of water and
use radiant floor heating system with water tubes underneath. The stored
heat will last a long time in a well insulated. And for the hot water tank,
I'd use an Airtap or similar heat pump hot water heater, which is at
a COP of around 3~4. And that would only kick on when the solar heat
doesn't get the temp up so it would just make up the difference.

For water, I'd probably use the evacuated tube systems, which I'll
probably put on my next house.

[eastcoastwilly]

I looked at this technology a few years ago. I came to the conclusion that heating water is the better way to go. After all who needs a space heater in the summer ?

I tried to think of ways using a rotating heat exchanger (single beer can if you will) at a moderate speed powered by a Fresnel lens controlled by an Arduino micro controller and a few servo motors to act as an X-Y-Z (3 axis) Solar Tracker. Tracking the sun is trivial with a micro controller using servos, as for air movement I was considering using 5-6 Imhotep's Computer Fan SSG (or Bedini Monopole with fan blade attached) after all why not charge batteries while we are at it ?

We need hot water year round so my idea was to use 2 or 3 large Fresnel Lens arrays stacked vertically on top of one another. Each array has a small copper tube pancake style heat exchanger that the lens focuses it's energy onto. Each feeding into the next...in series if you will. Thermocouples on the input and output of the system can be used to calculate the distance (Z axis) that the lens has to be from the heat exchanger to deliver the desired amount of heating. A small pump controlled by the Arduino could be be used to regulate water pressure through the system for another measure of system control.

Remember that this could be used year round and there will be many more BTU's of heat in the Summer than Winter, therefore, the lens will have to be farther away from the pancake exchanger in warmer weather or when the closed loop system is at a desired temperature when not in heavy use for shower, laundry or whatever.

Using this system as a pre-heater for a Tankless natural gas water heater would reduce your hot water costs significantly as gas prices are usually cheaper in Spring/Summer and a heat exchanger could still be using in Winter time for space heating if you don't have in floor radiant heating.

This system would be fairly easy for the "Average Joe" like myself to implement but there are some issues with safety (children/pets) that would have to be addressed.

Just a few observations,

Will

[everwiser]

The best payback is by heating the water and using it for thermal mass overnight. You can run water fed heat loops for nighttime heating or simply allow the water-stored heat to radiate into the house at night. For best payback, though, keep it as simple as your location will allow.

BuildItSolar: Solar energy projects for Do It Yourselfers to save money and reduce pollution

[Zooty]

The best payback is by heating the water and using it for thermal mass overnight. You can run water fed heat loops for nighttime heating or simply allow the water-stored heat to radiate into the house at night. For best payback, though, keep it as simple as your location will allow.

BuildItSolar: Solar energy projects for Do It Yourselfers to save money and reduce pollution

I had a similar thought after i posted but with bricks. My previous apartment had electric "storage heaters". During the day when electricity is at a cheaper rate, the heater would switch on automatically and heat bricks stored inside the base of the unit for a few hours. During this time, no heat escaped in to the apartment. In the evening, you could turn it on and get heat stored in the bricks without using power. As i remember, it was pretty good at delivering heat.

[Aaron]

heat in summer

After all who needs a space heater in the summer ?

Some greenhouses have done this for year. You take the heat during
the hot time of year and pump it 3 feet under the foundation. It moves
about 1 foot per month upwards. You pump the air into a 55 gallon
barrel plenum with octopus hoses going out and into some gravel under
the foundation with holes in it, it warms that mass. Thermal flywheel
effect.

By the time it gets colder, warm air is rising up from the foundation for
free in the winter. All that for the cost of a small blower.