Yep, I forgot to post something last night. Not that I really had anything to post, but I completely forgot. I got caught up on the internet last night reading about solar beer/pop can heaters that people make to augment daytime heating of their homes. I just recently stumbled upon this and I am really intrigued by it. I now know that people have been experimenting with this for years so I was surprised that I had never heard of it before. I'm seriously thinking of putting three or four together to use next winter.
Basically, a solar beer/pop can heater is a box containing columns of aluminum cans. The cans have holes in the top and bottom to allow air to flow through. One side of the box is glass or plexiglass to expose the can columns to the sun. The sun heats up the cans, in turn heating up the air in the cans. The air rises and comes out the top of the box. There is typically a hole at the bottom of the box that allows cooler air to enter and one at the top that allows the heated air to leave. There are many configurations and people often incorporate fans and thermostats.
It seems that no matter what, people are getting good results from their heaters. The "exhaust" temperatures are normally 120-150 degrees!. I saw one man's design that produced 220 degree temperatures from just harnessing the sun. Obviously these solar heaters only work in sunlight and won't work in the dark (duh), so they are mostly meant to help heat the home during the day.
I think I'll get started on some beer!
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