In the article, the author decided to share how you can make an excellent solar air collector from an old lamp that were previously used in enterprises. Even in our time, these huge lamps can be found in some rooms of the industrial type. Today, such equipment is discarded during repair, as it has long outlived its shelf life. However, everything is useful in the household and many workers drag things like this to their home, and then to the country house, village and so on.
Today, some people can find such a lamp at home, perhaps it is no longer working, but it can still serve for other purposes. Fabricated do it yourself a collector can heat the house, garage, a barn and any other room.
Materials and tools for the manufacture of the collector:
- old lamp;
- aluminum tape;
- matte black paint;
- scissors for metal;
- silicone;
- glass;
- computer fan, solar battery (optional).
Collector manufacturing process:
Step one. We remove all unnecessary
First of all, you need to take the lamp and disassemble it. Everything needs to be removed from it, including wiring and connectors. For the collector, only the lamp housing will be needed. After that, holes will remain in the case, they must be carefully repaired. For these purposes, it is easiest to use aluminum tape. Even under the holes, you can cut out the patches and then glue them with silicone or liquid nails.
Step Two Case preparation and painting
At the next stage, the housing must be prepared for painting. To do this, it must be thoroughly cleaned of dirt and old paint. This can be done with sandpaper or a grinder with the appropriate nozzle. After that, the collector housing can be painted.
Paint must be heat-resistant. Otherwise, bubbles will form on it during heating, and it will disappear, since in sunny weather the collector will heat up quite strongly.
Step Three Make holes
In order for air to circulate in the manifold, two holes must be made in it. Through one, cold air will enter the device, and through the second, hot air will exit. The smaller the hole, the hotter the outgoing air will be, as it will linger longer in the manifold.But if the air is hot, its volume will be less, as a result, the heating efficiency does not increase from this.
Holes are best done before painting, but the author succeeded after. To create holes, you can use scissors for metal. However, they can be made with the help of a grinder, there will be nothing to worry if the holes are square, and not round.
Step Four Set the glass
In order for the collector to be airtight and able to work, it is necessary to install glass on it. It is not necessary to use solid glass for these purposes, you can use several pieces, although there will be more joints. The glass is mounted on silicone, which provides excellent tightness. All joints must be carefully worked out with silicone, otherwise the collector's efficiency will be low.
That's all, now the collector is ready. You can connect a pipe to the outlet and bring it into the room that needs to be heated. To increase the efficiency of the collector, a small fan from the computer can be installed on one of the holes. So that such a fan can work autonomously, it can be connected to a solar battery. As a result, the propeller itself will turn off in the evening, since the sun will no longer power the solar battery.
In addition, it is desirable to insulate the metal housing of the collector from the outside, since the metal will cool, and the collector's efficiency will drop.
Collector testing showed these results:
- 10:00 hours - 46 ° C
- 11:00 hours - 58.5 ° C
- 12:00 hours - 63.1 ° C
- 13:00 hours - 65.9 ° C
- 14:00 hours - 62.4 ° C
- 15:00 hours - 54.3 ° C
- 16:00 hours - 35.0 ° C
- 11:00 hours - 58.5 ° C
- 12:00 hours - 63.1 ° C
- 13:00 hours - 65.9 ° C
- 14:00 hours - 62.4 ° C
- 15:00 hours - 54.3 ° C
- 16:00 hours - 35.0 ° C
Such figures were achieved despite the fact that the outside temperature did not rise above +15 degrees. And all this without the use of a fan, that is, air circulated naturally. Of course, if the fan runs too fast, the collector may not have time to warm up to this temperature, but this problem can be solved by making several such devices and connecting them together. Such devices can be installed on the roof or any other place where there is sun, and then using the pipes to bring heat into the room.
By the way, if the lamp is not available, then you can use the old trough, it is perfect both in shape and size.