I almost guarantee this will kill my winter heating bills. I just wanted to thank the other people for posting it in the first place.
As for the heat rising effect, the cans will be at nearly a 45 degree angle. They are going to sit on my roof next to my solar panels facing south. So the effect will be somewhat negated.
I figure if the air has to traverse a long path of hot cans, it will be very hot as opposed to just warm. I'll just have to increase the throughput of air.
Now, how do you warm your house at night?? Any suggestions? I'll check out buidit and see what they say.
I put a black can filled with engine oil in the sun and it retained the heat for awhile. I wonder how long a big array of black cans with oil in them would radiate heat after the sun went down? [ Parent ]
But aluminum is by far one of the best options. It is a great conductor.
I've seen those indoor columns of water that heat up thru direct sunlight then radiate heat at night. [ Parent ]
Bruce S [ Parent ]
I figure it will keep heat longer than water.[ Parent ]
If only I could buy those blocks they use to coat the Space Shuttle, lol. They absorb the heat incredibly well!
What is the best capacitor of solar heat? That is my quest! [ Parent ]
The one main gain from using the oil is that unless your located in -20F weather for days on end, it's not likely to freeze, so a drain back system shouldn't be needed. BUT there's the possible need for a pump to move the stored/heated oil to place needing heat etc...
Tranny Fluid can be a mess to work with too, it likes to find leaks and make messy puddles.
Hope this helps and doesn't stop you from trying. Any use of even a little bit of the solar heating gains will go a long way to helping keeping the bills down along with that way cool feeling of saying "I did this"
Bruce S
PS, Don't do like I did, and get the idea that mineral oil and a small submersible water pump will work. Worked, but mineral oil gooped up the pump. wan't a good thing thing. Pump cost me $5, oil for 20fl.oz was $5. mess was all day. And the Tranny oil would destroy the cheap plastic they're made of. [ Parent ]
You just can't beat the heat capacity of water. You'd have to go to liquid helium, hydrogen, or ammonia for a better specific heat.[ Parent ]
So even tho water is easy to heat, it also cools just as quickly.
The concentrators they use in Nevada use oil as do...cars to cool engines. Because they absorb more heat and don't change state like water.
I guess I'm thinking out loud. How do you capture heat? If you've taken a hot bath, you know how short heated water stays warm. Just thoughts. After all, if you can simply re-design your house to take in direct sunlight then you don't need any additioinal help warming your home. It's after the sun goes down...[ Parent ]
