Solar Air Heating

rhiwfield

Has anyone fitted a solar air heater? Having installed solar pv, and decided against solar thermal and ASHP atm, I'm wondering just how efficient these passive heaters are as a supplementary heat source instead of their main use as dehumidifyers/ventilators

I'd be thinking about wall mounted installation on a gable end facing 30 degrees west of south, with vents thru to main living room and master bedroom.

Plenty of diy ones on the net, but there seems to be a couple of UK firms now supplying, Solarventi and Dunster.

zeupater

rhiwfield wrote: »

Has anyone fitted a solar air heater? Having installed solar pv, and decided against solar thermal and ASHP atm, I'm wondering just how efficient these passive heaters are as a supplementary heat source instead of their main use as dehumidifyers/ventilators

I'd be thinking about wall mounted installation on a gable end facing 30 degrees west of south, with vents thru to main living room and master bedroom.

Plenty of diy ones on the net, but there seems to be a couple of UK firms now supplying, Solarventi and Dunster.

Hi

Have you considered a trombe wall or just panels ?

Z

Ben84

It really does depend on the weather. In the UK I mostly use heating appliances in the evenings and at night when the sun is gone, as well as cloudy cold days when there's less sunlight. So, I don't doubt solar air heaters work, just that it's important to consider the time of day and types of weather when you normally use the heating? They might not fit your heating habits and get little use, or maybe you would use them a lot?

rhiwfield

Trombe wall? Yes, thought about that and it could be a long term solution though fairly costly and bespoke. I suppose the solar air heaters are just a packaged scaled down version of a trombe wall.

Re heating patterns, the house would be the heat sink and its occupied throughout the day. Woodburner and oil ch are our main heat sources.

Re panels (thermal) not gone for that as payback is so long term and it involves extra complexity.

Trouble is the claims made for solar air remind me of some of the ASHP claims e.g. returns linked to electricity prices rather than oil/gas and output temp examples based on high input temps. You cant get any real feel for typical winter performance.