Passive Solar
I feel obliged to start anything like this out with the following:
I am not an enviro-weenie. I am not one of those low grade morons who believes in global warming. I’m not a member of greenpeace, a whalesaver, an oil hater or any of those liberal jackasses who believe that civilization is bad and we’d all be better off if we’d never invented the wheel.
However! Wasting is stupid. Oil is expensive, and I am insane, motivated and poor(ish).
When you’re standing in the cold and you put your hand in the sun, it’s warmer and the effect is dramatic.
If you go over to youtube and search for “passive solar” you’ll get at least dozens of videos of people who’ve built black boxes, about 3 by 4 feet, full of black painted soda cans, a hole on the bottom, a hole on the top and a piece of plastic in front. Usually there’s a thermometer inside that reads something insane like “190 degrees.”
I’ve probably watched ten of these build videos and I’m convinced of a couple things:
They’re brain dead easy to make.
They can be improved upon.
These guys are remarkably inefficient in their collection and use of sunlight. Now, I don’t know a damn thing about it. But I do know there’s a better way. I just have to find it.
I’m not going to keep posting every incremental step I make. I figure I’ll probably waste a lot of materials trying to get it right. But I have figured out how to make it such that I can try out several ideas within the same framework and, once I work out the particulars, I will definitely share them here.
Hell, I may even start making my own youtube videos. (There’s a special kind of horror.)
Anyway stay tuned.
January 14th, 2012 at 6:28 pm
You sure you don’t want to keep this to yourself till you figure it out? Knowing you, you will figure it out and you could be the next Steve Jobs. I have every confidence that it will be good.
January 14th, 2012 at 6:53 pm
Oh I don’t think I’m going to come up with anything that new.
January 15th, 2012 at 6:33 am
FYI - you might want to check out “Earthships” - in Taos, NM - I think you will find them interesting. I’ve been in a few and they have thought of almost everything. Off the grid, self sustaining living that would blow your mind. Old tires, soda cans, bottles, broken glass etc. You name it and they’ve used it. There are 450 of these places in Taos all out in the desert in their own community. Fun to see. Actually, it’s just north west of Taos by about 20 minutes.