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Simple Solar Heating for RVs

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  • Simple Solar Heating for RVs

    Please do comment - I appreciate feedback. The project highlighted here was back in 2007/2008, so is not "current"..currently in Central Florida where I don't have any needs for an active solar heating setup

    The article is sans photos (but will provide photo links). Basically hoping this stuff reaches the right audience - basically anyone in a pinch money-wise that wants to save money and go green, even in tiny ways.

    Simple Solar Heating for RVs

    Having lived full-time in an RV for several years now, my "green" side tends to run wild at times yielding some interesting results. With the economy just totally sucking the way it does, and so many people ending up living in campers "not by choice", some of these quirky projects from my past may be invaluable. This will be the first of a series of posts where I share some of these projects.

    For those of you living in a location that receives cold winters, this project might prove invaluable. It saved me hundreds of dollars in heating costs while living in central New Hampshire, and only cost less than $50 to set up!

    Firstly, here's an animated gif that demonstrates simple passive solar heating. With just a basic understanding of how this works, you'll probably find yourself coming up with some pretty cool ideas on how to harness the power of the sun. Keep in mind that the amount of heat generated when sunlight hits black collector plates is substantial - up to 800 or even 1200 BTUs per square foot! That easily translated to air temperatures of 50 to 100 degrees warmer coming out of the heater than the air that goes in.

    I tried various ideas, from what I called a "solar curtain" hung in my kitchen window to various simple window collectors made from old cardboard boxes spray painted black. They certainly worked, and worked well, but I knew I could do better. Plus, all the projects I had been trying would just recycle the stale indoor air. You see, I smoke cigarettes and absolutely refuse to "smoke outside" in the middle of a New Hampshire winter. I wanted a way to pipe in heated fresh air from outside.

    The solution was to set up some solar collectors on the outside of my camper, one on each south-facing window. To ensure the temperature of the air coming in to the camper was good and hot, I used 12V computer fans (hooked into my RV's 12V system of course) to blow the air in through the window when a thermostat registers high enough temperatures.

    The "collector plates" were simply thin sheets of wood, painted black and taped to the side of my camper. I used 1x2 lumber to create a simple frame for securing the clear plastic (.7 mil). The cold outside air entered through the bottom of the collector and heated up against the black collector plates. The heated air naturally rose to the top of the collector, where it was then blown inside by a computer fan.

    Outside air temperatures were around 30 degrees on the day I took these photos (see post for photos). By 3:30pm, the temperatures inside the collector were over 110 degrees and the temperature of the air blowing into the camper was about 87 degrees.

    A cheap programmable thermostat, set to the "cool" mode, monitored the air temperature inside the collector. When the temp was above my setting of 80 degrees, it sent power, as though it were turning on the AC, to the computer fans. When the air inside the collector cooled down, either because the sun was beginning to set or it had gone behind clouds, the thermostat stopped sending power and the fans shut off.

    Like I said, this system saved me hundreds of dollars in heating costs over the course of that one winter, and the total cost to set it up was less than $50. There were problems with the system, of course: on windy nights, cold air would often sneak through creating drafts. Overall, though, this system was a huge success.
    Full-time RVing for a safer, cheaper, more sustainable future ---
    [URL="http://rv-prep-end-of-days.blogspot.com/"]RVing Ain't Easy - RV-ing DIY tips, news, politics, predictions and astrology[/URL]

    "If you put a label on genetically engineered food you might as well put a skull and crossbones on it." - Norman Braksick, president of Asgrow Seed Co., a subsidiary of Monsanto

    "When green is all there is to be...And I think it's what I want to be"

  • #2
    I think it was one of the first. It's a vynil bag, one side clear, the other black on the inside. I haven't seen one like it in while, maybe because the water gets too hot.
    You fill it with about 5 gallons of water. Lay it in the sun, clear side up. In a couple hours you've got hot water.........................
    Last edited by russ; 09-16-2011, 09:34 AM. Reason: removed link
    Carrie.T
    [url=http://www.solar-panels-power-energy.com]Solar Energy[/url]

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