Reused cans, solar "heat pump" (sort of)
 

Interesting video. He describes a lot of his materials, naming things fairly specifically.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bRZvAAqzXIw

Very cool! The washing process, would that be the same for recycling aluminum? It sounds like a great deal of work...

LOVE It
 

Good stuff. I wonder if those new 22 oz cans will work better/worse??
or budweiser aluminum bottles??

He never once mentions the "co$t" of the fan used to circulate (blow) the air through all those cans, nor the size/cfm-capacity needed of that fan.

Does anybody have rough estimates of how many watts equivalent heating each m^2 of absorbed sunlight has?

I always open the curtains on the southern windows of the house, and when the sun is shining, it makes an enormous difference. Unfortunately, the cold days in the NW are also the cloudy ones.

I recall the number:

• 10-Year Average Insolation 5.38 kWh/m^2/day for Phoenix, AZ (high = 7.70 in Jun; low = 2.75 in Dec) [source: NASA - Surface meterology and Solar Energy Data Set].

• ~ 1000 W/m^2 at earth surface, but on diurnal cycle.

Based on that, I'd give a rough estimate of 300 watts of heating power per m^2 when the sun is shining brightly, in the winter, in AZ.

I was initially excited, but I don't think there is much application in the NW. If I were in Phoenix, I'd consider it a crime to burn anything or use more than a modest amount of electricity to heat the home.

I do not run the heater. :)

I also consider it a crime any time I see a solar panel in Oregon. It would be better to install that panel in AZ and have the landowner send a check every month to the person that owns it. Besides, Oregon electricity is extremely clean and renewable.

I saw plenty of solar panels in Germany. Some barracks had them on the roofs or we drove past fields of them off-post.

The Phoenix VA has solar panel parking. I thought that it was genius and have long thought that all parking lots should have that. It would be expensive, but it would then provide shade and electricity.

They are also putting them up here at Arizona State over the walkways and some parking lots, which I imagine everyone appreciates now that it is "cold."

redpoint5 - here is solar insolation info by states (from NREL): Solar Radiation Data Manual for Flat-Plate and Concentrating Collectors

That technology has been around for quite awhile-but I like the fact that this individual had the capital to make it a business.

I built one similar to that unit two years ago(soup cans as I don't drink soda, plywood box with a reclaimed window for the face, wrapped PVC pipe through a SIP window block and a leather 'hinge' for a one-way valve) and I have never regretted the $5 worth of high-temp gasket sealer nor the $10 block of SIP...paid for itself in savings in one month. In the summer, I run the heat feed into an all-purpose curing/dehydrating cabinet, and cure wood for walking sticks or make jerky-works a treat on bamboo fishing poles too!

Frankly,it astounds me that A) there is enough of a demand now that this innovator was able to start a business building these units, and B) that the people wise enough to buy these units aren't wise enough to manufacture their own for the cost of spare parts and elbow grease...the manufacture of Solar Thermal isn't exactly a Trade Secret, after all...:confused:

...true, but there are SOME people (who shall remain nameless) who don't know a hammer from a shoe heel, or a screwdriver from a butter knife, and have been known to donate more blood than an Ice-Hockey Player just while fumbling with the instructions (wink,wink)!

I happen to resemble all of the above...and I built one. Also, paint fills in a lot of heel marks, butter knife scratches and bloodstains! :thumbup:

I suppose some people still think that Labor=Money=Labor=Product (make money to pay someone to build it) makes more sense to some than Labor=Product (build one). I guess that's Economics for you-mind you, I wish the gentleman in that video all the best at filling that niche.

2:32
"it's pulled oot of yer house at aboot a hundred cubic feet per minute"