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Solar Air Heating Systems
by Steve Kornher & Andy Zaugg
ISBN:370 pages   8.5x11 inches [size]


Incredibly detailed information on how to make any type of solar air heater. It covers all of the rules of thumb, the materials, where to get them and much more. Whether you’re a homeowner or a contractor, this book has everything that you need to know about the construction and operation of all types of solar air heaters for space and domestic water heating. If you’re looking for one book that will get you into “hot air,” this is the one!

$29.95

 
 
DETAILS        

The Complete Handbook of Solar Air Heating Systems

How to Design and Build Efficient, Economical Systems for Heating Your Home


All of us are experiencing the problem that this book can help to ease: the rising cost of energy. The fuel bills for heating our homes and businesses are steadily rising every winter with no end in sight; and more and more of our income is required to maintain the level of comfort to which we have become accustomed. Weatherizing your house by caulking, weather stripping and adding insulation is a sure way to reduce your energy use and make your house more comfortable. Another approach is to replace an inefficient furnace or water heater with a more efficient one. You can also change to a cheaper fuel. Presently, gas and wood are typically cheaper fuels than oil and electricity. Sacrifice is yet another way to lower heating costs and is the approach many low- or fixed-income families must choose. Wearing sweaters and coats indoors and washing in cold water are reality for many people who are faced with a heat-or-eat situation.
However, no matter how much you conserve or sacrifice, if you live where it is cold in the winter, some heat simply must be added to your house in order for it to be reasonably comfortable. There is another option… we can look to the sun to produce this heat at a reasonable cost.
The purpose of this book is to help you avoid the high cost and unnecessary complexity of commercially manufactured solar air heaters by showing you how to build your own attractive, durable, low-cost collectors that deliver just as much heat as commercial systems costing over three times as much. SOLAR AIR HEATERS ARE EASY TO BUILD, and hundreds of owner-built collectors have been used successfully nationwide, but some deliver a lot more heat than others. Most of the do-it-yourself installations built at home would work a lot better if only one or two things were done differently. By presenting the basic principles involved and some of the mistakes made by others, this handbook will help you build a trouble-free, efficient and cost-effective solar heater.

 

Figure 2-1: To the left and below. Window box collectors and TAPs are easy-to-build collec­tors that deliver their heat by natural convection. They are best used to heat rooms that are fre­quently occupied and that require daytime heating. Window box collectors are self-damping at night. TAPs require lightweight backdraft dampers to prevent reverse thermosiphoning when the sun isn't shining.

 

Figure 2-3: This two-mode system is simpler than it first appears. When the upper floor calls for heat and the collector is on, solar air is blown into the existing ductwork to warm the living area. When the needs of the upper floor have been satisfied, the motorized damper changes positions, and solar heat is delivered into the basement and stored in the concrete walls there. Note that two returns (in­lets) to the collector, each with a backdraft damper, are required in this system.

 
 

Figure 2-6: A good technique for storing solar heat in new construction involves blowing solar-heated air through an insulated gravel bed under a concrete slab floor. With this arrangement the collector operates very efficiently and the floor provides comfortable, radiant heat. Dampers prevent heat loss from storage at night.

 
 

Figure 4-2: One way to visualize your solar exposure is to imagine a huge window in the sky south of your collector site. The top and bottom of the "solar window" at your site correspond to the sum­mer and winter altitude angles. The sides of the window correspond to the sun's position at 9:00 A.M. and 3:00 P.M.

 
 

Figure 6-4: When wiring a differential thermostat, two wires must be run from the second junction box to the thermostat. The first junction box can be eliminated if the hot wire you tie into has enough slack in it. Wiring a remote bulb thermostat is easier because only a single line must be run to it—corresponding to the DT switch line above. It is a good idea to include a manual override switch in the line to the remote bulb. Use cable clamp fasteners throughout.

 
 

Photo 8-4: After the plywood collector backing is in place, you can position the manifold and accurately mark the holes for the inlet and out­let ports. Note that the north roof of the collec­tor mount hasn't been completely sheathed, to allow for easier access when installing the man­ifolds behind the collector.

 
 

Figure 12-2: This illustration shows the ductwork layout for the Gonzales system. Details 1, 2, and 3 relate to the space-heating two-mode system, detail 4 to the hot water system. Hot ducts are shaded, returns are white. Detail 1 shows the air delivery to either the crawl space or the back bedrooms. Detail 2 is of the ductwork "octopus" and transition to the blower. Returns to the vertical collectors are shown in detail 3. Detail 4 shows the damper arrangement in the crawl space for the roof-mounted, two-mode water-heating system.

 

 

 
 
 
 

Solar Air Heating Systems
by Steve Kornher & Andy Zaugg
ISBN:370 pages   8.5x11 inches [size]

$29.95