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Many people don’t think about using the sun to heat their home during the cold months. Well, the sun puts out so much heat that it will give you a third degree burn if you were to put your body in from of the outlet tube.

1000 times more heat then any home furnace could ever put out. Here is a video on one of these home heaters. Remember that the larger you build one of these the more heat you will get.

This is not a kids easy bake oven!!! This is a serious home heating system.

Here is how you build one of these.

1st, you would need to build a frame from some wood. Remember the larger it is the more heat you will be able to collect and use.

Here are some pics for you to better understand:::

******By drilling a hole in the bottom of the cans this allows for the hot air to travel up through the hole into the next can. All the while the air is getting hotter and hotter. Pictured above there is bathtub calk used on the lip of the can so the another can be stacked on top of it.

*****Above you can see the cans stacked. This would be how you stack them into the box. You also want to use calk to secure them to the back of the box frame so they will not move.

******Above are some drawings showing some of what is explained here. Also, note that the small the hole you drill in the bottom of the cans the hotter the air will be when it reaches the outlet of the box at the very top.

******Above you can see one can with calk around it. The other one has a small hole in the bottom of it. It will be secured to the can above with the calk.

Next, you would out a back on this frame and secure it with nails or screws.

Now you would get some thin insulation and glue it to the back (inside) of the frame. After its glued into place you will want to spray paint it flat black using the same paint as you would if you were painting a BB-Q or engine block.

Now get yourself a bunch of aluminum cans and you will notice that there is already a hole in the tops of them for drinking. You want to drill a small hole in each of the bottom of the cans (about one half inch to one inch in diameter)

Next, you will want to glue the cans one on top of the other and against the insulation on the back of the frame. You can use about any strong glue however construction glue that you can buy in a tube will be the best and will not come apart easily.

Now you can paint all of the cans the same flat black that you used to paint the back of the frame.

Now take a drill an inlet hole near the bottom of the frame. About 3 or 4 one inch holes should be fine. These holes will allow for fresh air to enter into the boxed frame as the heated air escapes.

Drill a small hole near one corner of the boxed frame at the top. This will be the outlet for the heated air to be able to leave the boxed frame and enter into your home. On the back side or outside of the hole you just drilled you can mount a small computer fan (you can get one at radioshack for about $1.00) Now mount a small solar panel to the top of the boxed frame near the hole you drilled for the outlet. Mount the computer fan over the hole at the top. This will allow for the solar panel to run the small pc fan to force the heated air out of the boxed frame and into your home. (provided that you vent it into your home)

Now you can use either glass or plexi glass over the front of the boxed frame to prevent the heat from leaving without going through the aluminum cans and out the top outlet that you made.

You may also want to seal the plexi-glass to the front before securing it with screws to the frame.

Have you ever noticed how hot your car gets when it sits in the sun ever for just a few minutes? Yea, its like that accept 1000 times hotter.

With this system you will have created a solar heater that is forced air. It will only be on when the sun is out and making heat for you. Which is perfect as that is the only time you would want it on anyway.

On the outlet side near the top you can use the rolled copper tubing that you can buy at any home improvment center to vent this from the outlet hole through to your home. maybe even through a small hole in a basement window.

WARNING! THIS IS NOT A TOY! THE HEAT THAT COMES OUT OF THIS OUTLET TUBE WILL BE OVER 100 DEG. F

IF YOU SEALED THE BOX CORRECTLY IT MAY GET WELL OVER THIS.

How much heat does your furnace put out? I can guarantee its not anywhere near as hot as the air coming out of this system. In fact, you will get 3rd degree burns if you put any part of your body in front of the outlet or outlet copper tube.

Remember that the larger the frame you build the more heat that will be produced! I can not say this enough. You must be careful when using this type of system as it gets hotter then you could ever imagine.

Now all you have to do is lean this boxed frame up against the side of your home or garage making sure that the air inlet holes at the bottom are able to get air.

One person in the UK is using this system to heat his entire home. He tells me that his furnace has not kicked in the entire time due to all the heat he gets from the sun. He goes on to tell me that several timeshe had to open windows in the home to let some of the heat out as the home was 120 Deg. F inside at noon.

Here are pics of a stirling engine developed in early 1816. This was the first engine before gasoline and deisel engines were invented. You can also run this on solar heat!

These engines can run on any heat source including a mag. lense. (like the ones you used to burn ants when you were young)

Hook this up to a sun tracker and it would run forever! Well, okay maybe not forever but as long as the sun was shining or it found heat.

Here are the directions on how to make your own solar cells which then can be connected together to make one large panel. (source: worldwats.com)

Make a solar cell in your kitchen

If we are willing to sacrifice efficiency for the ability to make our own solar cells in the kitchen out of materials from the neighborhood hardware store, we can demonstrate a working solar cell in about an hour. Our solar cell is made from cuprous oxide instead of silicon. Cuprous oxide is one of the first materials known to display the photoelectric effect, in which light causes electricity to flow in a material. Thinking about how to explain the photoelectric effect is what led Albert Einstein to the Nobel prize for physics, and to the theory of relativity.

The solar cell is made from these materials:

- A sheet of copper flashing from the hardware store. This normally costs about $5.00 per square foot. We will need about half a square foot.
- Two alligator clip leads.
- A sensitive micro-ammeter that can read currents between 10 and 50 microamperes.
- An electric stove. My kitchen stove is gas, so I bought a small one-burner electric hotplate for about $25. The little 700 watt burners probably won’t work - mine is 1100 watts, so the burner gets red hot.
- A large clear plastic bottle off of which you can cut the top. I used a 2 liter spring water bottle. A large mouth glass jar will also work.
- Table salt. We will want a couple tablespoons of salt.
- Tap water.
- Sand paper or a wire brush on an electric drill.
- Sheet metal shears for cutting the copper sheet.

How to build the solar cell

The first step is to cut a piece of the copper sheeting that is about the size of the burner on the stove. Wash your hands so they don’t have any grease or oil on them. Then wash the copper sheet with soap or cleanser to get any oil or grease off of it. Use the sandpaper or wire brush to thoroughly clean the copper sheeting, so that any sulphide or other light corrosion is removed.

Next, place the cleaned and dried copper sheet on the burner and turn the burner to its highest setting.

As the copper starts to heat up, you will see beautiful oxidation patterns begin to form. Oranges, purples, and reds will cover the copper.

As the copper gets hotter, the colors are replaced with a black coating of cupric oxide. This is not the oxide we want, but it will flake off later, showing the reds, oranges, pinks, and purples of the cuprous oxide layer underneath. The last bits of color disappear as the burner starts to glow red.

When the burner is glowing red-hot, the sheet of copper will be coated with a black cupric oxide coat. Let it cook for a half an hour, so the black coating will be thick. This is important, since a thick coating will flake off nicely, while a thin coat will stay stuck to the copper.

After the half hour of cooking, turn off the burner. Leave the hot copper on the burner to cool slowly. If you cool it too quickly, the black oxide will stay stuck to the copper.

As the copper cools, it shrinks. The black cupric oxide also shrinks. But they shrink at different rates, which makes the black cupric oxide flake off. The little black flakes pop off the copper with enough force to make them fly a few inches. This means a little more cleaning effort around the stove, but it is fun to watch.

When the copper has cooled to room temperature (this takes about 20 minutes), most of the black oxide will be gone. A light scrubbing with your hands under running water will remove most of the small bits. Resist the temptation to remove all of the black spots by hard scrubbing or by flexing the soft copper. This might damage the delicate red cuprous oxide layer we need to make to solar cell work.

The rest of the assembly is very simple and quick. Cut another sheet of copper about the same size as the first one. Bend both pieces gently, so they will fit into the plastic bottle or jar without touching one another. The cuprous oxide coating that was facing up on the burner is usually the best side to face outwards in the jar, because it has the smoothest, cleanest surface.

Attach the two alligator clip leads, one to the new copper plate, and one to the cuprous oxide coated plate. Connect the lead from the clean copper plate to the positive terminal of the meter. Connect the lead from the cuprous oxide plate to the negative terminal of the meter.

Now mix a couple tablespoons of salt into some hot tap water. Stir the saltwater until all the salt is dissolved. Then carefully pour the saltwater into the jar, being careful not to get the clip leads wet. The saltwater should not completely cover the plates - you should leave about an inch of plate above the water, so you can move the solar cell around without getting the clip leads wet.

The above photo shows the solar cell in the sunshine. Notice that the meter has jumped up to about 33 microamps of current. Sometimes it will go over 50 microamps, swinging the needle all the way over to the right.

I purchased 12 of the walkway solar lights like you find at lowes or menards for around $40-50 bucks, then ripped them apart to make lights for inside my home. The lights are charged by the sun and only come on when its dark outide.

The small LEDS are very bright. When first you look at the bulbs you might think yourself, what the hell is that going to light?

That is what I thought when I first seen the bulbs however one just needs to light one up to see what I mean.

These small LEDS are actually brighter then a store bought night light.

Due to the fact that the photo sensor and small solar panel are out doors, the light is on the inside of the house and only comes on when its dark outside and then off when its daylight out. (used to charge the battery)

One could also wire these in series to get even more voltage for larger lights. Very cool.

There is almost NO maintenance to these. The only thing that could “go bad” might be the re-chargeable battery. If this happens just replace the battery with another re-chargeable and you are on your way again.

I purchased another solar panel. This one is only about 20 watts but its more then enough to charge a marine battery. The power can then be used for about anything 12 volt or regular ac current like that a home uses.