In Part 7, we took our first look at the Solar Max 240. Today we continue to examine our use of a solar air collector to reduce our winter heating costs, carbon footprint and consumption of a non-renewable resource (natural gas) by looking at our installation plan. If you don’t have a plan, how will you know when you get there, right?
NOTE: If you are installing the Solar Max 240 or any solar air heating device, be sure to follow the manufacturer’s installation instructions so you do not run the risk of voiding any manufacturer warranty.
The front of our home faces north while the back faces south. We have 5 foot high windows all along the south wall of the family room and kitchen. There’s no need for any extra heat in the winter in those rooms. In fact, we are leaving our exterior solar shades on the outside of those south facing windows year round because last winter it still became too gosh darn hot in those rooms without them.
Yes, the living room in the front has a window which faces north that does get cooler than the rest of the house, but not too much.
It’s the walkout basement that is our primary target for solar air heating.
We have a 1,700 square foot finished basement with 2 bedrooms, recreation room, cold cellar, etc. the deck off of the main floor family room and kitchen, the 5 foot high south facing windows in our main floor family room and kitchen are repeated as well as in the basement area with our billiard table.
However, the primary bedroom in the basement has a south facing wall with a small window as does the adjoining area of the basement’s recreation room.
Our first thought was to install the solar air heating unit such that it would take the air from inside the 12 ft X 16 ft basement bedroom into the unit and then push out the heated air such that some of the heated air would go back into the bedroom and the rest would go into adjoining area of the basement.
After various tweaks, options, and discussion, here is what we came up with as our final plan.
We are going to install the unit as close to the basement’s window as possible (the window on the right in the picture below which is the same window that can be partially seen in the picture above).
Why? Well, as we have discussed previously the shadow of the main floor deck creates a shadow which creeps along the south basement wall from west to east. So, by placing the unit as far east as possible (i.e. as close to the window on the right as possible), the unit would receive the greatest amount of direct sun light.
Now, such a placement would see the intake coming from the basement bedroom, which is what we wanted. What about the return of the air now heated by the sun? With the unit as close to the bedroom’s window as possible the opening in the unit would also be located in the same bedroom. That is not what we wanted. We want the heated air to go both into the bedroom and into the adjoining recreation area.
The solution will be to have insulated, flexible air duct attached to the outlet in the top part of the unit. This air duct will go straight out between the top of the drop ceiling and the bottom of the main floor’s support beams to an area near one of the two basement bedroom’s doors.
Just before that point the insulated, flexible duct will be connected to (and I don’t know the ‘professional’ term for this gadget) a piece of metal duct that has one intake but two outtakes. One of the outtakes will be connected directly to a metal duct vent through with the heated air will go back into the bedroom.
The second of the outtakes will see us connect more of the insulated, flexible duct that will run it’s way still between the bottom of the main floor ceiling and the top of the basement’s drop ceiling out into the adjoining basement recreation room. In fact, the 24 foot insulated, flexible duct line we purchased is sufficiently long to allow it to run all the way from the bedroom to the area in the adjoining recreation room that is directly in front the landing to go upstairs.
In the picture below the basement bedroom door shown above in on the right while the door to the basement landing is on the left.
The theory is that the heated air will not only help heat the recreation area of the basement but will also make it’s way (since warm air rises to the top) up the stairs and out to the north area of the main floor that does not receive any direct sun light which, therefore, causes that area to be somewhat cooler than the south part of the main floor. We shall see.
We shall also see if the fan which is part of the Solar Max 240 is sufficiently powerful to have decent air flow that far away from the unit, i.e. going through 24 feet of a flexible duct line after being split in two directions.
That’s our installation plan. Let’s get busy. Let’s start the installation. That is where we will start next time.
To continue to the next article in this series, simply select this link to Part 9 - The Installation Begins.
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