Hot Box for house heating

[Bob]

heres a pic of a drawing I did of the "Hot Box"
as good as this thing works keep in mind that it can be greatly improved with insulation and a small fan
I left the plastic covering out of the drawing for clarity...
grid size is 1' square and all sizes are nonimal... meaning nothing is critical at all.
its a simple build that will save you Hundreds if not thousands on your heating bills... Just remember to cap it off at sun down and open it at sunrise. <GRIN>
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Bob....

[Bob]

in the Drawing above I simply put 6" wide by 8' long pieces of plywood for the long SIDES and 6"x4'2" pieces for the top and bottom to frame in the 4'x8' 3/4" plywood back.
so at most it will cost you 2 pieces of plywood or One piece of plywood and perhaps some scrounging for the sides...<GRIN>  (the idea is just to close in the box so its as air tight as possible)
... you could do away with the sides and make the Hog wire support the plastic sheeting and then staple the plastic sheeting on the plywood back too...
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the up-side down "V"'s are made of 7ft long pieces of 12" aluminum flashing, found at most hardware stores, you can use flashing that isn't quite as wide but you will have to have more of them than just the 5 shown.... although there is an advantage to using thinner flashing strips because they won't stick up as high, and it may make it easier for you to box in the plywood if you only have to come up with 4" high instead of 6" high... so using 8" wide Aluminum flashing and bending it in the center to make a 90degree bend in it lengthwise, you can get away with that as long as you put in a bunch more strips of flashing (probably 8 or 10 of them)
the flashing should be secured to the plywood back so it will not fall off if you flip the thing over
so 3 attachment points on each side of the flashing should be more than enough.
 I just butted the heavy flashing up to the plywood and stapled it down with 9/16" staples in my staple gun... but I did that about every foot too...by the time I was done half the staples wern't doing anything at all but it served its purpose!.
I painted the aluminum and the plywood under it with High temp Flat black exhaust pipe spray paint...
I used about 6 cans because the wood was so darn dry... buying a can of black paint and using a brush for the wood would have been more cost effective!
with the plywood painted I put on the flashing running the length of the plywood, leaving 6" from each end as an air gap.
box made, painted inside and flashing attached and spray painted, it was time for the top...
I cut a piece of Hog wire that was 4'High  and cut a length of about 8ft 6"... and used the extra as wire to loop around dry-wall screws as anchor points.
with the Hog wire or "wire cloth"as its some times called  attached to the box I simply streached the plastic sheet over the thing and stapled the plastic to the back...
 about a year or so later I replaced the plastic as it was getting discolored and added another layer of hog wire about 3" higher than the first and did that after the first layer of plastic was on... this gave me a double insulated box and it helped a great deal but I am not so sure it was worth the effort.... what would have been better was to get some super clear storm window plastic to cover the thing with in the first place as the plastic I was using was milky and not very clear and the sun bleached it very fast.
...once the box was done I simply attached the hole in the center bottom edge to a 4" stove pipe.... and ran it to the floor level of the house ...through the outside wall... the top hole went to about chest high in the bedroom wall inside the house... the 4" stove pipe was easy to cap using a 3lb coffee can plastic lid... which I had an abundance of.
if nothing else a childs balloon can be blown up and stuffed in the hole or a handy wife can make a "Stuffer" to plug the hole with so its easy to deal with!
for a while I used a large ball of wadded up tinfoil as a plug at night ! LOL
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I estimate a well built solar "Hot Box" can save you at least $50.00 to $100.00 a month on your heating bill.... it stopped me from having to have a fire 24/7 to only after the sun went down and first thing in the morning ...if your interested in making these things I cannot recomend them high enough ! they are WELL worth it !... more than one would be a God send and a small fan pushing air into the INTAKE side of the Hotbox will keep the plastic taught so it doesn't flap in the brease and increase the BTU output a huge amount!
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it is Very important to keep the thing AIR tight however.... and a Hard Hail storm will destroy the plastic... even the best stuff !but even if you have to replace the plastic 2 times a year its well worth it.
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blocking the sides and filling the back side with loose hay (DRY grass or even wadded-up news paper
to fill the void behind the plywood leaning against the house will add to the heating capacity
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I remember seeing my thermometer pegged at 120degrees the same after noon I finished it... and the hot part of the day was already over!... (but I did have it capped for about an hour!)
I un capped it and put the thermometer in the 4" pipe !  and Yes it put out Hot air !
that convinced me that the Hot boxes were NO JOKE!   
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Have fun ! and stay warm!
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Bob....

[Manta]

Bob,

These kind of heaters can be very effective and run for nothing.
 As I mentioned,  I have a very good south view,  So If I angle one unit slightly East and another slightly West I should get a very usable amount of heat.
Idealy I should dig a big hole and sink a rock filled and well insulated tank in the garden that can act as a heat reserve.  But that would be expensive and I don't expect to live long enough to recoup the cost. Should have done it years ago.

Dave
(Manta)

[Bob]

From what I've Read aiming them directly south is your best bet...
I think thats because the first few hours of morning light the heat has to go through much more atmosphier to get to the ground, same for the last few hours before sun set... these daylight hours are more or less not worth the bother because they just don't have the Punch that the rest of the day has, as far as radiant heat being asorbed is concerned.
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I have a big o'l 13' Winegard satilight TV antenna out back that I thought if I covered the surface with Mirror Mylar and put a tank at the focial point in the center and pointed it at the sun I could have a STEAM BOILER! and produce a great deal of power with it!.... that antenna has a tracking motor on it and I could fix it up to "Track"the sun... but that is a bunch of work and would take allot of detication to get the bugs out...
 another simplier method was used by the "Planet Mechanics" to cook a Spanish Rice dish in Spain.
it was just a long horizontal parabolic dish... the parabolic shape was in the vertical plane and just real long.....if a fella made something like that out of plywood, covered it with cheap aluminum sheeting and put a big 2" black pipe at the focal point you'd have RED hot water/oil or what ever all day long... more than enough to heat a  septic tank full of large rocks and then pipe the hot air into the house at night !
... the trick with one of these systems is to get a good heat transfer from the heated medium to the storage device.... if you heat water and then store the hot water you should have no losses at all, but if you heat OIL to heat air to heat the rock you have some losses...
 I read about a guy in Alaska that ran a generator all the time for his electricity... he decided to capture some of the heat for heating his house... he added 3 more car radiators to his back room closest to the generator and with a flip of the valves he could circulate water through all the radiators.... that simple innovation cut his need for fire wood in half!
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by far the simplest solar heater I have ever seen is a 100ft coil of 3/4" PVC pipe laid out on a trailer house roof... covered with clear plastic tarp and with the soils spaced out about 3" or so
...this simple thing gave us Hot water to shower and wash with during the day for a good 5 years.
I put bricks on the roof to hold the plastic tarp down and that was all...
 I poked 2 holes in the roof over the water heater and ran the hot and cold sides in to the main water line (hot side) when I turned on the tap however you had to be real carefull or you could be burned!   there was enough hot water for a good long shower on a average day just in that pipe alone with no storage of the hot water...because it was so hot you barely turned it on ! LOL
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something like that lends itself easy to your hole in the ground storage devise idea all you need is a circulation pump. and a timer to turn it off at night ! the rest is a big tank and hookups!that's it!
... a big plastic tank from Tractor supply for $250.00 and 2 rolls of 100ft 3/4"pvc pipe for $50.00each, some metal push on connectors and a circulation pump for $39.00 at Harbor freight tools
and a $10.00 24hr timer from walmart and your all ready to go !
then you take the hot water out of that tank with another pump ($39.00) and run it to a big truck radiator in the house... (insulate the lines or you'll loose all your heat before it gets there!)
and you'd have more heat than you can stand!
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hehehehe
Bob.....


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Bob....

[Bob]

Another "OFF the WALL" method of heating water I read about in mother earth news mag. years ago was so simple it hurts....
 Most people with a spot of land have a compost pile.... so why not put it to work ?
with a chipper/shredder or even just a lawn mower... a fella can gather up a bunch of leaves grass and what not for his compost pile for the garden.... but while your at it   make it a big one say 8feet in diamator and fairly close to the house so your water lines don't have to be super long....
make about 2 foot of compost pile and start adding your coil of black plastic PVC pipe, make a few loops
and add another foot or so more of compost, and add more coils, then add more compost  etc,etc untill you have used up the entire coil of 100ft of PVC pipe....... add another 2ft to the top of the compost pile and then cover it with a good tarp.   hook the one end of the coil of hose to the water line
and the other end to the hot water side of the house ...
in a few days the heat of decomposition will start heating the water pipe and you will have hot water for free almost all winter... 4 to 6 months was the time frame for the compost pile's lasting time
... doesn't sound like very hot water but believe me it IS... hot enough to boil in the lines if its not cooled down by fresh intake of cool water....
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the idea may not appeal to everyone, but it is a viable method of getting free hot water into your home and unlike the solar method above this puppy is hot for 4 to 6 months straight...day and night!
and almost limitless amount as well...
depending on the compost pile and added cow manure and banana peals compost piles do range widely in their temperatures... so if your pile ain't hot enough add some stuff that decays faster !
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although I never made one of these "Compost heaters"... I was definitely impressed by the fellas ingenuity to come up with such a method to heat his house and shower....
he added a small circulation pump to the coils and a few old house radiators to his house... the radiators in the house were in a closed loop with the coils while his shower came straight from the house through the coils to his shower... I forget how he hooked that portion up but it was ingenious to say the least !
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Bob....

[Manta]

He probably had some kind of heat exchanger section.  A pipe within pipe maybe,  and a small header tank for his water supply to the shower.
There's lots of scope for experiment,  particularly if you want to go the heat - pump route.

Did you ever watch the documentory 'Garbage Warrior' ?
If not. you should do.  This guys in New Mexico. Very big on thermal mass.  I'm sure you'd find something useful in it.

http://www.garbagewarrior.com/trailer.html

Enjoy !

Dave
(Manta)

[Bob]

Thanks Manta...gee he looks fimilure... heheheh
I'll DL that thing some day looks interesting...I love his use of glass bottles and concrete!
problem is in California that would NEVER FLY with the planning commission... 
 I find it simply Amazing that somebody actually got Storage container houses Past in Santa Barbra Ca.
but I think its incurring as all get out that someone DID in the state of California.... the problem is I don't know how to get info to do the Storage container houses...if I did I would definitely do that here... I had envisioned 6- 40 ft containers surrounding a swimming pool and garden atrium that I could actually do if they would only LET ME !  but getting their PERMISSION to do anything in this state takes BIG BUCKS! ... if I had the approved plans I could go from there and see what the planning commission says about it... they couldn't blow me off if its already approved in the state, which is what they did to the first people that tried to make a Straw-bail House in this county... it took 10 years to get permission from them...by then southern cal had dozens of straw bail houses and they couldn't denie it any longer, and gave in !
... to say these guys want it done their way is a understatement... unfortunately!
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 I have even given thought to a stone house made with rocks from the creek and cement... but I know without even asking that the planning commission here would have such restrictions on it that it would be too expensive to build! how I long for a place where I could do what I want when I want and not have to ask anyone for permission...LOL
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Bob.......