I've Got Solar Energy Working for me now!

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WHAT THE DYCUS SOLAR ROOF DOES

Very briefly, the Solar Roof I've designed [1] allows enough solar energy into our cabin's attached greenhouse during the winter for plants to grow with a little "extra" warmth left over to circulate from the added-on hothouse to the cottage, and [2] heats watermore than we know what to do with! during the spring, summer, and fall when all our plants are moved outside and we use the attached structure as an extra room.

I hope you digested that last paragraph very carefully (if not, please read it again) ... because it says far more than a casual glance might indicate.

The trouble with most greenhouses, you know, is that they're wonderful during the winter ... but virtually useless -and return nothing on their investment-in the summer. My greenhouse doesn't have this problem because I've gone out of my way to make the add-on structure a multiseason, multi-purpose room. As a result, the attached building contributes something of value -whether food, heat, moisture and oxygen in the air, the mere presence of green growing things during the winter, light, or plain ole physical space - to our lives every day of the year.

THE MULTI-PURPOSE SOLAR ROOF PANEL ...

The real key to this year-round versatility is a special roofing panel of my own construction. The panel is designed [1] to form a covering for a room or house that is just as permanent and weathertight as any other roofing material. In addition to that, howeverand unlike other roofing materials-the specially fabricated panels [2] admit controlled amounts of sunlight into a room or building, [3] will heat water when it's circulated through a network of tubing that is built into the panels, and [4] will warm air when it's blown through the cavities which surround the network of tubing. Finally [5], the roofing panels can be retrofitted to almost any structure that you might want to solar temper, turn into a winter greenhouse, light naturally, or use to heat water with the sun's rays.

Topping our cabin's add-on room with my Multi-Purpose Solar Roofing Panels, then, was the first big step we took toward making the attached structure contribute so much to the cottage's living comfort and versatility.

...AND HOW IT WORKS

We make our Multi-Purpose Roofing Panels work for us In a number of ways. First, of course, the roof keeps rain, dust, falling leaves, etc., out of the room it covers and otherwise acts like an ordinary roof. And second, it allows approximately 40% of the sunlight which falls on it to pass through into the greenhouse/spare room below.

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