Flat plate garage door solar collectors

[wewantutopia]

Anybody know of such a product?   Could be water or hot air.   For south facing garage doors, this is a huge untapped surface area.   Should be an easy product to manufacture since the door panels are already thick hollow cavities.

Just brainstorming...

[thirteen]

With some stiffening of the frames and cushioning for the panels and flexable wire a person should be able to make a solar door. But take the basketball hoop off the front of the garage.

[SparWeb]

You don't have to buy one. Instead, you can stick with the DIY spirit of this site, and build one yourself:

http://www.builditsolar.com/Projects/SpaceHeating/SolarGarageCollector/VinylSolarDoor.htm

[wewantutopia]

I did read over that post in the past.

I was hoping there was some others who had made the ACTUAL garage door into a solar collector.

[SteveCH]

Are you going to disconnect the water lines every time you want to raise the doors? I am not seeing this. Air heating would work ok, if you get good sunlight hitting the vertical surface of the doors when closed. But, water?

I just finished building a roof-mounted collector, by the way, following, mostly, the information on BuildItSolar. It has been hooked up now for about two weeks, very happy with the performance.

[SparWeb]

I just finished building a roof-mounted collector, by the way, following, mostly, the information on BuildItSolar. It has been hooked up now for about two weeks, very happy with the performance.

Make sure to let Gary know about any observations you have, good or bad.  He loves improving his projects with reader feed-back.

I was hoping there was some others who had made the ACTUAL garage door into a solar collector.

What do you have in mind?  Modify a segmented door or a solid one?  Separate panel entirely?