WARM YOUR SWINE WITH SUNSHINE

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ANYONE CAN BUILD IT!

Since one side of our barn faces due south—with no obstructions between it and the sun—the structure simply cried out far a solar collector. I suppose it was that lucky coincidence that first started us thinking about our alternative energy possibilities.

I should mention at this point that the dimensions and configurations of the collector and ductwork were the result of some fairly heavy homework on the engineering principles involved. We also brought in a consultant, Don Rode, who is employed as an agricultural engineer (and something of a solar expert) at the University of Illinois in Urbana.

After a lot of preliminary planning, we realized that we could use the top of the barn itself as a part of the collector, and eliminate the trouble (and expense) of building a separate hot air enclosure.

Our first step was to paint the roof's sunny side with a coat of asphalt driveway sealer. About $10 worth covered the 25-foot-high by 48-foot-long surface, and application of the flat black coat was made easy after we attached long handles to the paint rollers,

Once the asphalt had dried, we tackled the most time-consuming part of the job: building a framework that would support the collector covering and provide the necessary air-heating space.

We cut and installed 1- by 4-inch wood ribs ... which run vertically up the roof at two-foot intervals. These are raised from the asphalt-covered surface by 8-inch lengths of 2 X 4's ... placed—on edge under the 1 x 4's-every three feet. Our wood was rough-cut pine, and—thanks to the large woodlot on my father-in-law's place-our only lumber costs were for sawing and hauling the free timber.

Once We ribs were bent (to follow the curve of the roof) and nailed in place, we put on the covering. This "skin" was made from a fiberglass—reinforced clear resin that we ordered from Energy Conservation Von and Solar Center 121 Valley Street, Manchester , New Hampshire 03105). I'm sure there are other suppliers of similar products, but this covering suited our purposes, and the price—although it turned out to be our biggest capital outlayseemed right: $270 plus shipping for enough to cover half the roof (or about 600 square feet), which was the extent of our collector surface that was ready for the first winter The film is .0025 of an inch thick and comes in 50-foot rolls, 49-1/2 inches wide. (The extra 1-1/2-inch width gave us a 3/4-inch overlap on every second rib center.) We fastened the covering to all the ribs with neoprene-washered roofing nails and caulked the whole surface tight at its top and side edges.

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