The sun emerges from behind Overlook Mountain on the northeast slope after Vernal Equinox.
At Winter Solstice, the morning sun appears just above the rock outcropping far down the southeast slope of the same mountain.
Mountain covered with snow on Vernal Equinox.
Bright sunshine and over 300 sunny days per year make the southwest a perfect place for solar energy.
Spring snow quickly melts with strong solar gain on southwest side of home.
Spring snow and high cost of filling propane tank makes urge to switch to solar energy strong.
Affordable Simple Solar Solutions
By Charleen Touchette Spring, 2010
http://www.oneearthblog.blogspot.com/
Spring Equinox sunrise on northeast shoulder of Overlook Mountain reminds me of how far the sun has traveled towards its summer home from the frigid day of Winter Solstice when it rose far down the southeast slope of the same mountain. Day lengthens and night shortens each day as we move towards Summer Solstice and the Sundances in mid-June. The movement of the sun brings thoughts of how to turn our energy use for space and hot water winter heating from non-renewable propane gas to solar. The high cost of $1200 and upwards to refill the propane tank makes these thoughts more urgent. So, I have been researching and brainstorming about different ways to switch from non-renewable energy sources to renewable sun and wind. The good news is that there are plenty of resources and websites out there worth looking to for information and supplies. The difficulty is finding sites that present simple, affordable and easy ways to make this earth friendly change. I've listed a few of the more interesting and clear sites on solar energy solutions. Will continue this research and update you on what I find on future One Earth Blogs.
By Charleen Touchette Spring, 2010
http://www.oneearthblog.blogspot.com/
Spring Equinox sunrise on northeast shoulder of Overlook Mountain reminds me of how far the sun has traveled towards its summer home from the frigid day of Winter Solstice when it rose far down the southeast slope of the same mountain. Day lengthens and night shortens each day as we move towards Summer Solstice and the Sundances in mid-June. The movement of the sun brings thoughts of how to turn our energy use for space and hot water winter heating from non-renewable propane gas to solar. The high cost of $1200 and upwards to refill the propane tank makes these thoughts more urgent. So, I have been researching and brainstorming about different ways to switch from non-renewable energy sources to renewable sun and wind. The good news is that there are plenty of resources and websites out there worth looking to for information and supplies. The difficulty is finding sites that present simple, affordable and easy ways to make this earth friendly change. I've listed a few of the more interesting and clear sites on solar energy solutions. Will continue this research and update you on what I find on future One Earth Blogs.
__________________________________________
Passive Solar
http://web.me.com/davidbainbridge/Waterwalls/Solar.html
Solar Water Heating –
at Build It Solar – The Renewable Energy Site for Do-It-Yourselfers
http://www.builditsolar.com/
Welcome To Build-It-Solar
Plans, tools and information to do renewable energy and conservation projects.
Hundreds of projects -- from changing a light bulb to building a solar home.
Design information and tools for building renewable energy projects.An Experimental section for backyard inventors.
http://www.builditsolar.com/Projects/WaterHeating/water_heating.htm#1KSolarWater
http://www.builditsolar.com/Experimental/PEXColDHW/Overview.htm
An attempt at a $1000,
cold climate,
high performance,
long life,
low maintenance,
easy to build
solar water heater.
This system can save $300+ per year in energy costs and reduce CO2 emissions by 2 tons. Full and free construction plans provided below -- it will cost about $1000 in materials.
As of late April 2009 we have lived with this system for 8 months. It has been trouble free and provided a solar fraction of 94% over the cold Montana winter. Aside from the failure of an off the shelf controller, it has required no maintenance. The drain back system has seen temperatures down to -30F with not even a hint of a problem.I believe that the system has been and will continue to be the functional and thermal equivalent of commercial systems that seem to be going for around $7000+ these days.
http://www.builditsolar.com/Projects/WaterHeating/water_heating.htm#Example1KSystems
Solar Space Heating
http://www.builditsolar.com/Projects/SpaceHeating/Space_Heating.htm
Solar Space Heating for radiant heat using $1,000 solar water heater system and 6 4 x 8’ collectors or 24 x 8’.
This Solar Water Wall sounds perfect –
It combines all we need for the One Earth Bottle Home –
1) Simple
2) Low cost
3) easy to build
4) use inexpensive materials
5) low-maintenance
6) no need to use energy to work
http://web.me.com/davidbainbridge/Waterwalls/Solar.html
Water wall passive solar buildings
By David A. Bainbridge
The most economical solution for heating and cooling most buildings is passive solar design — using the elements of the building to collect and store solar energy for heating and using climate resources for natural cooling.
Passive solar systems use energy from the sun and climate resources to provide both heating, cooling, and ventilation.
They do not rely on auxiliary energy sources to function. Because there are no pumps or controls, they will work even if the power is off.
They are simple and relatively low in cost.
They combine collection and storage. They have a long life and need little maintenance. They use energy-inexpensive materials.
They can be built and installed by the regular construction trades without special equipment.
Water wall passive solar buildings are usually the most attractive type of passive solar home. The key element for a passive solar home is thermal mass — and water provides this mass at a lower cost than either concrete or phase change salts.
This site by Solar Roofs has lots of good info on buying their solar systems and do-it-yourself help as well.
http://www.solarroofs.com/SolarSpaceHeating.html
Bob’s brilliance again – simple and elegant – this can be the prototype for the OneEarth Bottle Home – once it is made beautiful by a woman. A home based on an ice house - appropriate for a Canuck girl.
http://www.builditsolar.com/Projects/SpaceHeating/SolarIceShack/SolarIceShack.htm
Bob's Solar Heated Ice Shack
This is a really simple, efficient and cost effective way to heat an ice fishing shack using solar. It appears to work very well.
Thanks very much to Bob for providing this material!
If Bob can heat an ice shack with solar, what are you waiting for!
From Bob:
Being retired and already having installed Solar Domestic Hot Water and an active Solar Air Heater on our house I was impressed with the ability to capture meaningful heat even in frigid conditions. Since I ice fish on the Lake of the Woods and have a friend who owns an 8 ft X 12 ft ice fishing shack I began thinking about how I could heat the shack with Solar. It came to mind that such an application would have some key considerations in its favor.
1) There is no need to worry about buildings or trees blocking the panel’s exposure to the sun.2) Since the ice shack is portable a southerly alignment is not an issue.3) The use of the shack is typically only during the daylight hours.4) The reflection off the snow should give an added boost to the panel’s performance.
The insulating, sealing and installation of the panel was done on dry land last summer.I was fortunate to acquire 8 used 4 ft X 8 ft boards of 2” foil faced polyiso insulation so I insulated and sealed the shack first.
Interior of the ice shack. The 2 X 6 plank resting on the barbeque is to stabilize the shack during transport.
For the Solar Panel design I decided on Gary’s double screen mesh passive design.Since this was to be a low cost/ no cost project the glazing used was 6 mil poly rather than the more durable, better looking but more expensive clear corrugated polycarbonate panels.
The treated 2 X 4’s were recovered from a deck replacement project.Even the black paint used on the shack was only $10 because it was a wrongly mixed tin that I just had them add black coloring to.The only other actual expense was for the 4 ft X 7 ft times 4 bug screen that was used for the flow through absorption surface.The construction of the panels was very simple using 2 X 4’s on edge for the frame and 2 X 4’s ripped in half to support the bug screen.
This is an interior view of the panel wall with slot cut through for the thermal siphoning heated air to return into the shack.
There are 4 identical holes under the bench to allow cooler air to enter the bottom of the panels.
Back draft dampers are installed over the top holes to reduce back flow on non sunny days.
I initially used 6 mil plastic for the dampers but found they were too heavy and impeded the weak thermal siphoning forces.
As suggested by Gary these dampers have since been replaced with light weight garbage bag plastic which do work better.
This interior wall was left uninsulated to take advantage of the radiant heat emanating through the wall which appears to be quite significant.
Results
Yesterday February 18th on a beautiful calm sunny day with an outside temperature of 31 F I was pleased to find temperatures in the shack varying from 90 F at the ceiling to 55 F at the floor. Midpoint temps were perfect if not slightly too warm at between 70 and 80 F.
Tips
When installing the plastic glazing it is important to do it on a sunny day otherwise it will stretch and become baggy.Sealing and insulation of the structure being heated is very important.Overall this was a simple cost effective and satisfying project that I hope others like minded fisherman will find useful.
Bob
Bob will answer email questions -- you can reach him at:
Bob Allan: ballan AT kmts DOT ca (replace AT with @ and DOT with a period).
Kenora on beautiful Lake of the Woods in Ontario Canada
Gary Feb 20, 2010
Contact/About Legal Disclaimer Copyright 2005 by Gary Reysa
______________________________
Passive Solar
http://web.me.com/davidbainbridge/Waterwalls/Solar.html
Solar Water Heating –
at Build It Solar – The Renewable Energy Site for Do-It-Yourselfers
http://www.builditsolar.com/
Welcome To Build-It-Solar
Plans, tools and information to do renewable energy and conservation projects.
Hundreds of projects -- from changing a light bulb to building a solar home.
Design information and tools for building renewable energy projects.An Experimental section for backyard inventors.
http://www.builditsolar.com/Projects/WaterHeating/water_heating.htm#1KSolarWater
http://www.builditsolar.com/Experimental/PEXColDHW/Overview.htm
An attempt at a $1000,
cold climate,
high performance,
long life,
low maintenance,
easy to build
solar water heater.
This system can save $300+ per year in energy costs and reduce CO2 emissions by 2 tons. Full and free construction plans provided below -- it will cost about $1000 in materials.
As of late April 2009 we have lived with this system for 8 months. It has been trouble free and provided a solar fraction of 94% over the cold Montana winter. Aside from the failure of an off the shelf controller, it has required no maintenance. The drain back system has seen temperatures down to -30F with not even a hint of a problem.I believe that the system has been and will continue to be the functional and thermal equivalent of commercial systems that seem to be going for around $7000+ these days.
http://www.builditsolar.com/Projects/WaterHeating/water_heating.htm#Example1KSystems
Solar Space Heating
http://www.builditsolar.com/Projects/SpaceHeating/Space_Heating.htm
Solar Space Heating for radiant heat using $1,000 solar water heater system and 6 4 x 8’ collectors or 24 x 8’.
This Solar Water Wall sounds perfect –
It combines all we need for the One Earth Bottle Home –
1) Simple
2) Low cost
3) easy to build
4) use inexpensive materials
5) low-maintenance
6) no need to use energy to work
http://web.me.com/davidbainbridge/Waterwalls/Solar.html
Water wall passive solar buildings
By David A. Bainbridge
The most economical solution for heating and cooling most buildings is passive solar design — using the elements of the building to collect and store solar energy for heating and using climate resources for natural cooling.
Passive solar systems use energy from the sun and climate resources to provide both heating, cooling, and ventilation.
They do not rely on auxiliary energy sources to function. Because there are no pumps or controls, they will work even if the power is off.
They are simple and relatively low in cost.
They combine collection and storage. They have a long life and need little maintenance. They use energy-inexpensive materials.
They can be built and installed by the regular construction trades without special equipment.
Water wall passive solar buildings are usually the most attractive type of passive solar home. The key element for a passive solar home is thermal mass — and water provides this mass at a lower cost than either concrete or phase change salts.
This site by Solar Roofs has lots of good info on buying their solar systems and do-it-yourself help as well.
http://www.solarroofs.com/SolarSpaceHeating.html
Bob’s brilliance again – simple and elegant – this can be the prototype for the OneEarth Bottle Home – once it is made beautiful by a woman. A home based on an ice house - appropriate for a Canuck girl.
http://www.builditsolar.com/Projects/SpaceHeating/SolarIceShack/SolarIceShack.htm
Bob's Solar Heated Ice Shack
This is a really simple, efficient and cost effective way to heat an ice fishing shack using solar. It appears to work very well.
Thanks very much to Bob for providing this material!
If Bob can heat an ice shack with solar, what are you waiting for!
From Bob:
Being retired and already having installed Solar Domestic Hot Water and an active Solar Air Heater on our house I was impressed with the ability to capture meaningful heat even in frigid conditions. Since I ice fish on the Lake of the Woods and have a friend who owns an 8 ft X 12 ft ice fishing shack I began thinking about how I could heat the shack with Solar. It came to mind that such an application would have some key considerations in its favor.
1) There is no need to worry about buildings or trees blocking the panel’s exposure to the sun.2) Since the ice shack is portable a southerly alignment is not an issue.3) The use of the shack is typically only during the daylight hours.4) The reflection off the snow should give an added boost to the panel’s performance.
The insulating, sealing and installation of the panel was done on dry land last summer.I was fortunate to acquire 8 used 4 ft X 8 ft boards of 2” foil faced polyiso insulation so I insulated and sealed the shack first.
Interior of the ice shack. The 2 X 6 plank resting on the barbeque is to stabilize the shack during transport.
For the Solar Panel design I decided on Gary’s double screen mesh passive design.Since this was to be a low cost/ no cost project the glazing used was 6 mil poly rather than the more durable, better looking but more expensive clear corrugated polycarbonate panels.
The treated 2 X 4’s were recovered from a deck replacement project.Even the black paint used on the shack was only $10 because it was a wrongly mixed tin that I just had them add black coloring to.The only other actual expense was for the 4 ft X 7 ft times 4 bug screen that was used for the flow through absorption surface.The construction of the panels was very simple using 2 X 4’s on edge for the frame and 2 X 4’s ripped in half to support the bug screen.
This is an interior view of the panel wall with slot cut through for the thermal siphoning heated air to return into the shack.
There are 4 identical holes under the bench to allow cooler air to enter the bottom of the panels.
Back draft dampers are installed over the top holes to reduce back flow on non sunny days.
I initially used 6 mil plastic for the dampers but found they were too heavy and impeded the weak thermal siphoning forces.
As suggested by Gary these dampers have since been replaced with light weight garbage bag plastic which do work better.
This interior wall was left uninsulated to take advantage of the radiant heat emanating through the wall which appears to be quite significant.
Results
Yesterday February 18th on a beautiful calm sunny day with an outside temperature of 31 F I was pleased to find temperatures in the shack varying from 90 F at the ceiling to 55 F at the floor. Midpoint temps were perfect if not slightly too warm at between 70 and 80 F.
Tips
When installing the plastic glazing it is important to do it on a sunny day otherwise it will stretch and become baggy.Sealing and insulation of the structure being heated is very important.Overall this was a simple cost effective and satisfying project that I hope others like minded fisherman will find useful.
Bob
Bob will answer email questions -- you can reach him at:
Bob Allan: ballan AT kmts DOT ca (replace AT with @ and DOT with a period).
Kenora on beautiful Lake of the Woods in Ontario Canada
Gary Feb 20, 2010
Contact/About Legal Disclaimer Copyright 2005 by Gary Reysa
______________________________
Build an Outdoor Solar Shower
With propane prices at an all time high, I decided to build an outdoor solar shower.
The most simple solar shower is a coiled garden hose place high in a tree in full sunlight. I am clearing a spot in our outdoor bathhouse that is under construction for a solar shower. The plan is to dig a basin with a drain into our garden to irrigate with runoff from shower. I will tile shower floor with stones and pebbles from the surrounding area.
Check out these websites for ideas and plans to make solar showers.
The article below is a good explanation of how to build a solar water heater that is simple and affordable. Thanks to author William Weber for doing the research and figuring out how the average person can make an easy affordable solar water heater.
http://www.motherearthnews.com/Renewable-Energy/1979-09-01/A-Homemade-Solar-Water-Heater.aspx?page=2
_________________________________________________
These are just some ideas to get you started. I will post more information on future One Earth Blogs. In the meantime, go to the sites mentioned here to learn more and get on your way to taking your first steps to sustainable solar energy for the health of the earth and everyone living here.
One Earth. Think About It.
One Earth Blog by Charleen Touchette Copyright 2010 by Charleen Touchette
_________________________________________________
These are just some ideas to get you started. I will post more information on future One Earth Blogs. In the meantime, go to the sites mentioned here to learn more and get on your way to taking your first steps to sustainable solar energy for the health of the earth and everyone living here.
One Earth. Think About It.
One Earth Blog by Charleen Touchette Copyright 2010 by Charleen Touchette
2 comments:
Thanks for the information. I was looking for it. I have a similar blog at Solar Energy Advantages
Hi
solar hot water heaters are cost effective and eco friendally. people started switching towards these systems because these systems increased the real estate value of a home. we all must experience the power of solar hot water heater at least at once
Post a Comment