Solar Heat Collector Part Deux
Solar Heat Collector
It’s science fair week at my daughter’s school and when she came up empty in regards to what she wanted to try making back in December, I suggested something close to my heart – solar energy. Yes – I was being just a little bit selfish when I suggested making a solar heat collector, but given our new administration’s embrace of alternative energies and the timing of the project, I thought it would be a good project to explore.
Check out the National Renewable Energy website for more kid’s science projects.
I figured it it worked, it would give me incentive to make a large scale one for my garage studio. The original plans I found back in the fall that used mostly recycled materials which called for drilling holes on the top and bottom of empty aluminum cans sounded too dangerous for an 11 year old to attempt making, so she researched different projects and watched several videos (thanks YouTube) and finally decided to make a solar heat collector that incorporated design elements from a few of the projects. Instead of aluminum cans to collect the heat, she used aluminum foil which she painted black.
I knew she needed to be able to make it herself with minimal help from me – I tell her all the time that I’ve already graduated from 5th grade and I have done my share of homework in my life time. This was her project and I’m so proud of her, and I was equally excited to see her discoveries! I did act as the official photographer in order to document her temperature readings.
She used recycled materials and built two boxes for less than $3.00 apiece – though we did purchase a Ryobi IR 001 Infrared Thermometer for $29.95 at Home Depot in order for her to take her temperature readings. I can’t find the tool on the Home Depot Site – but it’s the coolest new gadget and has uses outside of her science project. It’s billed as a tool to perform energy audits of one’s home and is good for -4° F to 600° F.
Click on any image to scroll through her photo album how she built her solar heat collector.
26 Photos
My daughter made 2 different solar heat collectors that were constructed exactly alike – the only difference is that she painted one of them black and left the other one unpainted with aluminum foil exposed. The unpainted one did produce heat, but not like the one painted black.
9 am temperature reading
12pm temperature readings
Yep – you’re seeing this correctly – at 12pm, when the sun was highest in the sky, her black painted box was registering a temperature of 165° F!
5pm temperature readings
You can see that by 5pm, when the sun had nearly set and the air temperature was in the 30′s, there was barely any difference between each of the boxes. In fact, at this time of day the temperature difference was negligent.
Pretty amazing, don’t you think? Free heat! There is a real limitation. The practically free heat collector doesn’t store heat – so it’s only really good as a supplemental heat source when the sun is shining.
Meanwhile, I actually spent some time in my studio today.
It felt good,
~Cynthia
