Can solar space heating Part 1

[Jon Miller]

Hello

I saw a solar thermal DIY panel made from metal drinks cans.

So i decided to build one.

I have tried to make it from materials that any one can get hold of from any large DIY store.

So far I have made the frame.

Varnished the frame.

Sourced some glass.

Sourced some insulation.

built a jig for cutting the tops and bottoms of the cans.

So what follows is how far i have got.

This is the frame with some of the drinks cans sitting in to show the idea.

The cans i am using are Red Bull style drinks cans, 250ml tall thiner cans.

The next two pics are of my jig for holding the cans firmly in a pillar drill so i can take the tops and bottoms of with a hole saw.  The jig works really well and holds the cans firmly but i have lost some cans as the pillar drill i have spins to fast for the hole saw i am using.

The next two pics are to show my manifolds made from rectangular extractor fan channel.

The panel will use 144 cans in total and should produce over 1kW of heat in strong light.

will post more pics once its finished.

Regards

Jonathan

ps sorry for the poor picture quality.

[luckeydog]

Another way of removing the tops and bottoms is to use a belt sander. It works real quick. my favorite way is to leave the top hole and burn a hole in the bottom with a torch. that is the quickest way i know of doing it.

  Nice work on your solar heater. I uses mine to heat the chicken coop.

 Luckeydog

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[tecker]

A  Unibit walks right through .