Various methods of heating and cooling discussion

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OutOfPlaceNinja
Posts: 49
Joined: Sat Jan 24, 2015 3:37 pm
Location: USA

Various methods of heating and cooling discussion

Post by OutOfPlaceNinja » Fri Feb 20, 2015 11:51 pm

Not sure if this is the proper board for this, but here it goes.

I would like this to be a thread about various methods of heating and cooling ones shelter on or off grid. Any and every method one can imagine. If you bring up a method, please try to go into some detail. If you have experience, please share.

OutOfPlaceNinja
Posts: 49
Joined: Sat Jan 24, 2015 3:37 pm
Location: USA

Re: Various methods of heating and cooling discussion

Post by OutOfPlaceNinja » Sat Feb 21, 2015 12:17 am

Passive solar window heaters:

One method of obtaining at least some BTUs is a passive solar window heater. These can be as simple as a flat black painted board over the window with an opening above and below the board or as fancy as a large outdoor solar box to collect heat and pipe it into the home. The outdoor solar boxes may need a fan to help it out. In theory, one could build an outdoor box big enough to heat an entire room or maybe even the house on sunny days. One big issue is they only heat the air so as soon as the sun goes down, the room begins to cool.

From my research, it seems the cheapest and simplest collector material is black fiberglass screen (like the kind you use over windows to keep bugs out). From some basic tests, it seems to work pretty well.

The attachment (solarwindowheater.png) is a rough idea of the solar box using fiberglass screening (crappily drawn). Your box should be designed where the cold air must pass through 2-3 layers of screening before it exhausts back into the house. The intake should be from the house and the exhaust should be into the house. A fan is likely needed.

For a basic window heater, get some plywood, paint it flat black with some high temp paint (only need to paint it on one side), attach it to window frame so there is a gap at the top and bottom of the window of maybe 2 inches or so. It will block light but the sunlight will heat the wood and the air within the space between the wood and the window, the air will then rise due to being heated. It will automatically suck in cool air at the bottom. This can be useful for some solar gain but don't expect it to heat your home much. I have even seen one solar heater that someone made on YouTube that was a box filled with aluminum turkey pans painted flat black and covered with plastic that worked well. For that one he had a fan blowing air into it and thus forcing hot air out and back into the room.

Some videos:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=znytJtU0za4" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r22AWgASnMk" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BqS3vnM2G7U" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f2jH8PcuOMs" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dt5fSa57NQ0" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Attachments
solarwindowsheater.png
Basic solar window heater design
solarwindowsheater.png (55.17 KiB) Viewed 19947 times

george house
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Location: brighton ont, canada

Re: Various methods of heating and cooling discussion

Post by george house » Sat Feb 21, 2015 6:05 pm

http://store.mwands.com/dc-water-heater-elements/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; in addition to yours above, if too much energy, dump it into something

techman
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Re: Various methods of heating and cooling discussion

Post by techman » Thu Feb 26, 2015 9:05 pm

I have experimented with simple versions of this before. I hope to be able to find time to get into these again on video one day.

Uncle Bear
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Joined: Tue Apr 28, 2015 4:35 pm

Re: Various methods of heating and cooling discussion

Post by Uncle Bear » Mon May 04, 2015 12:32 am

An old-time method used to cool a house in hot weather. 1.Open doors and windows to determine the direction of airflow. 2.Soak sheets or other thin cloth materials in cold water. 3.Remove all excess moisture. 4.Hang in doors or windows allowing natural airflow to cool house.

Uncle Bear ;)

DakotaEight
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Joined: Tue May 12, 2015 7:48 am

Re: Various methods of heating and cooling discussion

Post by DakotaEight » Tue May 12, 2015 8:03 am

For cooling in the summer. Build wooden shutters for the windows facing the hot sun in the summer. Or window awnings that sit low enough. Shutters are better so you can open them all the way in the winter.

DakotaEight
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Joined: Tue May 12, 2015 7:48 am

Re: Various methods of heating and cooling discussion

Post by DakotaEight » Tue May 12, 2015 8:06 am

Have you looked into a rocket mass heat stove? Look it up on you-tube.

The_Amateur
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Location: NW Atlanta

Re: Various methods of heating and cooling discussion

Post by The_Amateur » Thu May 14, 2015 8:12 pm

For summer, I have an awning going over my south-facing window that isn't fogged up. It is designed so that the sun's rays over a certain angle in the sky will not be able to make it inside. When the sun gets lower later in the day, the shade of trees' leaves take over. Once winter comes around and the leaves are off of trees, the sun will be passively heating through the window as if the awning wasn't even there. With the highs currently reaching the mid 80s to low 90s, the temperature inside never gets over 83 without the use of any climate control. That's with only R6 insulation in the walls.

For winter, I made a passive solar heater that very nicely works using 2x4 for framing, plexiglas that the sun passes through (not recommended; use glass if possible since after one winter it's warping), holes on the bottom for fresh air intake along with screens, and soda cans on the back wall spray painted black to attract sunlight. The heater works alright all the way down to freezing using the fresh (outdoor) air intake and probably down to much lower temps if you have the intake ducted back inside to warm the inside air.

techman
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Re: Various methods of heating and cooling discussion

Post by techman » Thu May 21, 2015 8:30 am

Uncle Bear wrote:An old-time method used to cool a house in hot weather. 1.Open doors and windows to determine the direction of airflow. 2.Soak sheets or other thin cloth materials in cold water. 3.Remove all excess moisture. 4.Hang in doors or windows allowing natural airflow to cool house.

Uncle Bear ;)
Your idea works in an environment with lower humidity but around here with daily humidity levels between 50 and 97 percent we have to get the moisture out of the air. Putting more into the air just makes you sweat more.

Just removing the humidity makes you feel cold in this area.

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