This $30 Solar Setup Heats a 30 X 40 Workshop for Five Hours or More Every Sunny Winter Day
(Page 5 of 9)
November/December 1977
By the Mother Earth News editors
FACING STRIPS AND PLASTIC FILM
RELATED CONTENT
An indoor pool with this system can actually pay for itself in reduced utility bills, including wir...
Want to know how to build your own photovoltaic system, how to construct a solar water pump, or eve...
It’s not every day that you get a chance to tour a green home. Well, here’s your opportunity! Every...
A string of new solar manufacturing plants are scheduled to open within the next few years....
From California to New Jersey, utilities across the nation are pursuing developments in solar power...
There are approximately 500 linear feet of 3/4" by either 1 " or 1-1/2" facing strips on the front of our collector and we scrounged 'em all from old boxing lumber. It's possible to get four or five lengths of these strips from even split boards that are virtually useless for any other purpose. Remember, too, that a great many of these facing pieces can be as short as two feet long and still work.
Nail your longest strips to the tops of the triangles so that you form three horizontal rows that extend the full length of the collector. Then cut short pieces that fit between the horizontal rows to make vertical rows of the stripping. When you've finished, you'll have a very neat gridwork of two-foot squares completely covering the face of the whole 8' X 30' unit. This gridwork (which you'll probably want to paint) will provide excellent support for the plastic film you're about to apply and will keep the flexible covering from being drawn against the back of the collector when the solar heating system's blower is pulling air from the unit.
Check around and take a look at the various plastic sheetings available in your area before you buy. In general, the clearer the covering on your collector, the better the unit will work ... and you'll find a considerable range of transparency, even in the least expensive plastic films. Either four- or six-mil-thick sheeting should be all right ... but the sixmil (even though it transmits slightly less light) is somewhat more, durable and, therefore, to be preferred. We covered our collector with sixmil polyethylene that we bought in an 8' X 100' roll (for$17) from Sears.
Before you begin to apply the plastic film (especially if you do the job in cold weather), make sure that it has warmed to at least room temperature. If you don't, you'll find it impossible to stretch the covering tightly enough to compensate for the plastic's expansion once the collector begins to heat up. And that's not good. Besides looking bad, a loose, floppy covering will also wear out a great deal faster than a taut one.
We tacked our plastic on with a few staples to hold it in place until we could really anchor it every two feet with predrilled vertical 3/4" thick by 1 " wide by 8' long strips of wood. These strips were attached with screws ... which we think are almost a must for later easy replacement of the plastic covering.
A second layer of the film was then put on right over the strips holding the first (which, of course, automatically created a 3/4"-thick insulating air space). This second plastic covering was also stretched as tightly as possible and anchored with strips and screws. This time, however, the vertical strips were spaced four feet apart.
Page:
<< Previous 1 |
2 |
3 |
4 | 5 |
6 |
7 |
8 |
9 |
Next >>
