The Smug Bastard
 

I think I mentioned somewhere that I installed a SolarSheat over the summer. We had a cold/dark week here so by Friday I was thinking about lighting our first fire of the season. Friday had occasional sun though which was enough to keep the living space from dipping below 68 degreesF my target temp. Yesterday and today are sunny so we're storing heat again. So it is October 5th and I'm in zone 5b feeling warm and smug, burning no fuel. I'm working on the basement this winter to make an insulated space that'll double as a quiet place to contain Lil' Griff's drum kit.

Yes, he certainly is.





;)

Bloody good for you!
I am very impressed and you have every right to feel smug.

I couldn't work out why I was so hot on Friday.
I checked the burners and the oven twice because the kitchen was so warm (we have a gas hob and the kitchen has a HUGE skylight, meaning people sometimes leave them on by mistake)

The third time I went in there I was so concerned I walked around to find out where the heat was coming from.

They'd switched the thermostat on. It was about 15 degrees outside! (59 to you) That's the temp when the weather starts being bearable in my book.
Shocking waste of heat, when the door to the yard was propped open.

Griff, I don't understand how or where it is installed. Do you have any pics?

The back of our house faces mostly south with no tree cover so we draw a lot of solar into our kitchen through the glass door and bay window. We have a manual awning on the deck, so I leave the awning down in summer and up in winter.

That solar panel might be good for our basement, but the basement is sunken except for 3 feet so I would need it to exhaust the air at the bottom.

I wonder how long it would take for the $2000 to pay for itself?

Griff, I did a search and couldn't find where you had discussed this before. Can you provide more details?

Google is my friend! Install:

http://www.yoursolarhome.com/docs/So...Manual_2.3.pdf

coll! link them together for more heat

http://store.altenergystore.com/mmso...on_7_13_06.pdf

I think they should design one of these that is a direct replacement for the screen in a sliding door. It's about the right size and would only require designing it to fit in the track.

I guess they could even make one to replace a hinged door. That would be handy, particularly if it came pre-hung.

I'll have to take a picture. I have a South facing walk-in basement. What I'd like, in fantasy world, is for the solar heater to eliminate the need for the pellet stove. We've found that if the basement gets too cold the Russian fireplace we heat the rest of the house with has to be burned more often. My thinking is to super-insulate the basement keeping the pier the fireplace is on from getting cold and conducting heat out of it. If it works as I'd like the payback is 10 years when pellets are $200 a ton. However, that assumes I won't have to replace the used pellet stove I've been using with a new one. I think the stoves are starting at about $2500 these days.

Sliding door would not really work without significant clearance for input/output duct, even just the opening. I would forever remain passive but I guess you could just put a little door or them that open and close with a slide.

That is a brilliant idea!

Rich, you can mount them landscape style as well.

On our sliding doors, the screen is on the inside, so you wouldn't need the ducts. The fan (and thermostat) could be inside the panel.

Griff: can you pass along more technical data?

I have a friend who is redoing his house and might be interested in this. Is this really worth the investment?

Brian

Heres a page with specs. I'm looking at this as an experiment. I don't think it would be useful as a main source of heat, but as a way to take the edge off a cold shop or basement it should have value. It only runs when it has direct sunlight, which works for me because those tend to be the coldest days. My basement temperature rose 17degrees yesterday under optimum conditions.

Would probably work for us since we live 3 miles from the sun.