So, my wife and I are closing on our new house next week. For the first time I am going to have a large back yard that I can start putting some of my mad scientist notions to work. For those of you who who have not seen my
Passive Electrical Generation thread, I am quite enamored with the possibilities presented by the behaviors of liquids and gasses at different temperatures/densities. So here is what I am kind of thinking and wondering if it is feasible.
Would a solar heat collector actually be able to supplement the heating of a house during a winter in Virginia, where the temperature does get into the 10-20 degree Fahrenheit range?
I actually thought about trying to create a universal system that could be switched based on the season from power generation to home heating, but have decided that it would require retooling the system each season. One system is being designed to shed heat at every possible point save the input, the other will have to be designed to retain as much heat as possible outside the collection point.
For my power generation project I decided to use a solar collector design that I saw at
www.IWillTry.org,
design here. I think the same design has similar potential for this project. The main question is, will my solar heat collector be able to collect enough heat during winter to actually make this feasible? The collector is going to be painted with a flat black paint, and then put into a greenhouse casing to get as much heat generation as possible. All other points in the system outside the house will be as insulated as possible. Before the winter I will be taking my caulking gun and insulation foam cans and seal up the house tight. One way valves will be used in the system to ensure that cold air is not feeding back into the system, and covers will be used during night time hours.
Perhaps this will just take some experimentation. Just wanted to get some impressions on the idea and if it is an unrealistic expectation that the solar collector could get reasonably hot enough during the winter.
