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Over the past few days, FedEx, UPS and the mailman have been delivering package after package to my house as the parts to my solar heater come in. I made a trip to Radio Shack today and picked up the fan, some wire, a 12V battery and a some tester-thingy (so I know how much juice I’m getting from the solar panel). Too bad the tester requires a battery, which I didn’t buy, and Radio Shack didn’t inform me of. Oh well… after I put the solar cell in the sun, clipped the clamps to the wires of the fan, the fan worked! There it was… a spinning fan, using no power.

The fan is a perfect size - 40mm… my idea is to keep this simple, so if I can use doorknob drills, that’ll make this real easy. I still have to find the ductwork I want to use, though.

I’m waiting for a PayPal payment from one of my clients, then I’ll order the glass. It’s a special glass, made for things like this. The glass is about $100 for a 4×8 foot pane. I still have to decide where this first unit is going, measure the house and figure out how much glass I need.

So now I have the thermostat, solar panel, and fan. And I know that putting them all together works. I see a trip to Home Depot in my future this weekend… pick up the lumber and insulation. Oh, and I want to get a couple of cheap thermometers so I can measure the air temp at the bottom and at the top of the panel.

How exciting! While I’m working on this large model, I had an idea for a fully self-contained, self-powered, portable version. Think of a window air conditioner, only smaller, much lighter, and with no plug. Open your south-facing window, insert the unit, close the window down to hold it in place, and in a few minutes, it will start producing heat. I’ll draw up the plans and post them soon. That one may be easier to build, too.

This entry was posted on Friday, February 9th, 2007 at 2:09 pm and is filed under Energy. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.