Solar Heater

SOLAR HEATER
Yesterday I reverted back to norm and ran around in circles and started screaming about the sky falling after Peak Oil hit us. Today I’ll try to take it a little easy on you. Since I covered cheap AC, how about cheap heat? It is not a total answer, not a “replace my oil furnace” type of heat. Just a “keep you alive in the winter if marauding bandits burned down your outhouse and the woods caught fire and there is no wood to burn” type of heat. It’s not even my idea, so don’t blame me if it doesn’t work. A kind reader, not content to simple read the same drivel about the same old crap, forwarded an article about a simple $300 solar heater from, of all places if you can possibly believe it but I didn’t until I saw the picture from the cover but I still rubbed my eyes in astonishment and felt the cold chill of death crawl up my spine since this could only mean that Hell itself had froze over and all the liberal Communist tree-hugging Gore vomited hype about global warming had been a foul lie, Mother Earth News.
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Yes, the same magazine that focuses on Southern California Hollywood pukes insulating their twenty thousand square foot house, not because it ever gets cold there but to insulate their tender pink skin from the scorching 70 degree heat as well as having the added benefit of keeping the noise of the non-electric vehicles and the unemployed non-Yuppie types kept to a minimum. And of course these same people must have at least fifty thousand dollars worth of PV panels on their roof so they can power up their alarm systems to notify the private security guards that are actually armed with firearms unlike the rest of the comrades in the Peoples Republic Of Kalifornia, who may decide to buy a stolen 38 special from the turn of two centuries ago but if they ever defend themselves against an escaped felon armed with a fully automatic machine gun and having the fresh blood of his last victim still dripping off of his chin, well, not only will the state prosecute him and toss him in prison for life with actual criminals, if by some miracle he has the money to hire a defense attorney from the OJ Simpson team and gets out before he is sodomized and dies from AIDS he will still face a civil lawsuit from the relatives of the alleged felon who although they are all illegal immigrants still can win the lawsuit because our lawyers must not under any circumstances including nuclear war be faced with unemployment and so it is perfectly fine to smear the Constitution with their body wastes and then burn it.
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In case you are wondering, I think Mother Earth News is a total fish wrap, but once in awhile the clouds part and a divine voice from on high proclaims they will present a decent article of self reliance. The author of the article took a separate building, a garage or workroom, and covered the south side with five or six panels of plastic sheets to heat the building rather than use his propane heater. Actually I don’t know if it was a total replacement or just enough to keep the gas bill down, but it doesn’t matter. For three hundred dollars you could buy ten refills on your five gallon propane canister, or you could heat your building forever more. Who cares if the heat never approached the BTU rating of oil or gas. It is free after the initial investment. But more importantly, in any kind of emergency or disruption of supply, it will keep you alive. Sure, at night you need to dive under a stack of wool blankets or comforters and it will be hell in the morning getting out of bed to a cold house, but that’s your own damn fault for living in a conventional stick built house with almost no insulation that takes three quarters of your income for thirty years to pay off instead of digging a big hole, driving a cargo van down into it, ferro-cementing the whole thing and covering back up with dirt for a constant fifty degrees inside and possibly sixty if you burn a few bear fat lamps. You know the oil is running out and you still are living in a conventional home and commuting to work. But aren’t we all. I don’t commute but I sure burn the fossil fuels to keep it livable in my trailer in winter. We’re all guilty, so in the future the solar heater is all any of us will have.
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The solar heater is a frame of wood on the outside of the building, laid over the pattern of the wall wood frame. You cut a intake hole at the bottom, and one at the top. A few inches tall, from 2x4 to 2x4 of the wall frame. On the outside, the new frame is covered by the sheets of plastic ( looks like the tin sheet but made of semi-transparent plastic ). Laid on the old outside wall are sheets of black metal screen. Seal it all up. It can be one section, one foot wide by six tall, or multiple sheets side by side. Ideally you want to cover the entire south facing wall. The cold air from inside the dwelling is drawn in at the bottom, rises up and is heated by the sun coming through the plastic and hitting the black metal. The warm air goes back into the building in the top opening. No outside air gets in, so the air is constantly heated and forced inside. This is a variation of my old solar heating article, from the excellent publication Dollars From Sunshine. A trough is built, if from nothing else an old door. Put sheet metal on it, paint it flat black. On the edges, place raised wood, such as 1x1’s. Put a sheet of glass over the raised wood. Have an opening at top. Place at an angle, up against a south facing window, the opening in the raised window. Close the window at sundown. Hot air during sunny days.
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The wall mounted unit has its advantages though. Number one, no one can easily steal it. Number two for the spoiled trophy wife Barbie Princess of the family, it looks neat and clean rather than trashy and junky. Three, it is easier to shut it down after the sun is gone. You just close off a small wall hole rather than manhandling the whole unit away from the window. Of course, it won’t get quite as much sun. The window unit can have reflectors and works at a slant. I like the original concept, but the new MEN article type might float your boat instead. Presented here for your information. If you don’t like it, cancel your subscription to MEN and send that money to me where I will keep visions of sugar plumbs and bolt action war surplus rifles dancing in your head. And please, keep in mind these kinds of projects need to be done before any kind of energy emergency hits. In the 1970’s after the oil shock, insulation was almost impossible to get once everyone else had the same idea. The same will happen with solar heat materials. And, think about replacement plastic or glass in storage. One wind swept particle or one small bullet will kill your heater and Lowe’s will be closed.
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posted by James m Dakin at 6:05 AM