# Solar collector pictures



## Ross (May 9, 2002)

I visited with an old friend today, he has several solar collectors built and functioning, here in frigid Eastern Ontario. It was a chilly 48 degrees f here so not a bad day to see how these thing work. Here's a picture of the collector.








This was his first attempt and from the inside I had noticed a hot blast of air coming from the blower.








which is an antique he'd scrounged from somewhere but still very effective. 
The thermometer outside shows just under 150degrees f and there's no thermostat the blower just runs constantly when the manual switch is on. 








A closer look outside showed the intake (its a one way system overpressuring the building somewhat) 








While poorly placed and not using a recirculation system it provided enough heat to limit use of the oil heat in his shop area to only the very coldest days this past winter. I'd estimate that to be around 400 square feet so rather small. Not bad for a first attempt and a bunch of scrap! The collector outside uses an insulated bottom and back case lined with black steel and glazed in single pane "scrap" glass. he has two more collectors which improve on this one. I'll post more on them later.


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## SolarGary (Sep 8, 2005)

Hi Ross,

Very nice.

Some more pictures and construction details would be great.
Hard to tell from the pictures where the inlet and outlet are?

Gary


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## Ross (May 9, 2002)

Hi Gary the last picture shows the inlet to the building, it simply sucks in outside air to replace that "pumped" into the building! The pictures are all I have, Lloyd wasn't feeling as well as he might so I didn't want to overstay my welcome either. Construction details will follow as I am going to build one myself.


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## Jim-mi (May 15, 2002)

And so how much fossil fuel has he NOT used and stayed comfortable.
So what if they ain't pretty--- as long as they work.
Good for him.


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## RobD (Mar 2, 2006)

Just an opinion but I would put the output high at one end and the input low at the other. This way natural convection would take place and no motor would be required.


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## Ross (May 9, 2002)

Rob I hear ya. The simple idea that these things could cut costs even just in fall and spring, means you could save a few hundred dollars in heating costs! There's improvements to be made, Lloyd did but I think it could be taken even further. To his credit he didn't mess with success too much, maybe it would be fairer to say there's room to optimize a great idea. I'll have to ask SolarGary nicely if he'll re-post links to his site. Its a great place to visit too!


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