Solar Powered space heater

Catbells

Looking at my garden lights which are solar powered and cost about £13 it struck me that maybe I could buy a small  solar powered space heater to use in my bedroom or living room.  Do such things exist?  Anyone..

[Deleted User]

Best method for solar heating a room is the have the curtains open and closed at appropriate times.

Your solar powered garden lights will be something like 10W. That’s not a useful amount for heating.  Touch them at night, I bet they don’t get very hot.

A room heater is often 2kW. That’s like having 4 or 5 of the solar panels you see on roofs.

Astria

They do exist but they are rare as they are VERY expensive. Certainly not something you can buy in any typical consumer shop such as B&Q or the like.

Expect to pay between £1000 - £5000 depending on specification.

You are best letting the sunlight in to warm the room up during the day and closing them to attempt to keep it in at night - otherwise known as thermal energy.

[Deleted User]

I will clarify - the method you seem to suggest, OP, of a small solar panel like for garden lights which then runs an electric heater is possible, but the amount of heat you get out is not massively useful because the solar panel doesn't produce much electricity.  Making light is much easier than making heat.

Solar Thermal is definitely a thing.  It is used in many places, more often for hot water than for space heating, but it's perfectly possible.  They tend involve sticking a radiator or two on the outside of your house to warm up in the sun.  That's then a permanent installation on your house, with new pipes to get the air around and suchlike.  Not a small or portable thing like you may wish.  A couple of examples:

pochase

A 4.5KW solar system will be about £5000 and generate 16KWh per day in ideal conditions.

Unfortunately in winter when you need the the heating you have no ideal conditions, if you get 20% of the above you are lucky. 

So you would need over 20KW panels to create enough power to run a 2KW panel heater for 8 hours at a cost of over £20000.

Of course you would generate a lot of electricity in summer that you can "sell".

[Deleted User]

Even if such things do exist, you might be disappointed. I have a 6.35kWp solar array which generated 110kWh of electricity last December. My worst output day was 350Wh. I am sure that a solar-powered device might work well in the summer but not on a dank and cold winter's day.

Catbells

Thanks for bringing me down to earth with a hard thud!  Although I see there is a large battery charger for sale which you could plug a heater into and generate heat for one room for a few hours.  

[Deleted User]

But where are you planning to charge the battery from? 

Neither heaters not batteries are magic - if one needs 1000W from the mains it will still need 1000W from the battery.

You can’t get energy by magic, and heating needs a lot of it.

EssexHebridean

Deleted_User said:

But where are you planning to charge the battery from? 

Neither heaters not batteries are magic - if one needs 1000W from the mains it will still need 1000W from the battery.

You can’t get energy by magic, and heating needs a lot of it.

Rubbing two sticks together always feels a bit that way though* - mind you, we might all be reduced to that before too long!  


* please note, I do understand how rubbing two sticks together works and don't require it to be mansplained, thank you!   

markin

DC heater direct to a solar panel, But if its sunny you probably get more heat from solar gain and don't need extra, And its never sunny when you need it to be.



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lQ68jPlnMxM