VAWTs and workshop heating

[Steve Maskery]

I like! Not yet found that panel in the UK, but enjoying watching some YT DIY stuff.
Thank you very much.

 

[dzj]

Talking of Navitron, you could get one of these jobbies?

https://www.navitron.org.uk/air-heater- ... ce-heating

A Finnish member of this forum built something similar a year or 2 ago.
I wonder how well it works in the Far North?

 

[Lazurus]

I think with all the money you will be spending on some of these ideas it will pay the percentage of the power bill for some time?

 

[Jonzjob]

I don't know if the far north is any different than the far south DZJ? But it seems to work OK as far south as you can get :mrgreen:

https://www.solarthermalworld.org/conte ... antarctica

Not in their winter though me-thinks :shock: :shock: But they are heating water and between storms they do get a bit more summer sun than us :?

 

[Jonzjob]

I forgot to add that we, in our new home, have 120 47mm tubes in the back garden to heat a 300 ltr heat store tank. Not my instalation but the previous owners. Shame the bleedin stuff don't work, but that is because of the cowboy installers from wht I can make out.

We had 50 tubes in our Franch home that I installed in about 2006 and they heated our 9.5 X 4.5 mtr pool, so the expression 'overkill' comes to mind?

Now to get them to work and then cut the total down quite dramatically!

 

[Just4Fun]

A Finnish member of this forum built something similar a year or 2 ago.
I wonder how well it works in the Far North?

I use Navitron tubes in Finland, but for heating water rather than air. I get about 7000 kWh per year from 80 tubes. It does work well when there is sun but there are long periods when there are no clear skies and it doesn't perform. On the other hand the bright clear skies at this time of year (no cloud, no haze) and with the added benefit of sunlight reflecting off the snow onto the panels typically makes February or March the most productive month. It can be -30C outside but if the sun is shining these are producing at full power.

 

[Steve Maskery]

This has got me thinking.

I have some old twin-wall polycarbonate sheet, from an old conservatory roof. The cavities could be regarded as an array of square pipes, couldn't they? So if I removed a bit of wall at the end, two tubes would become connected. And if that were done on alternate walls, I could make a zigzag route through the whole panel.
Mount it in a box, add a little fan and solar panel, fix it to the front of the workshop.

What do you reckon?

 

[Phil Pascoe]

How much would it cost to try? There's your answer.

 

[Jonzjob]

+1 for that, it ain't going to cost you a lot is it?

If you paint the back of the panel black that should help too. If you did the removal from several adjacent 'tubes' then you would get a better circulation me-thinks?

Don't forget to seal the ends though :mrgreen:

This is the tube array

https://flic.kr/p/Rsv2GD

And my workshop with the solar air panel

https://flic.kr/p/Rsv2Ke

https://flic.kr/p/Rsv2Jn

You can see the PV panel down the centre, the fan at the top and the circulation holes at the bottom. It's early daze yet but it seems to work fine and like you Seve it ain't cost me nowt init 8)