Adventures in Ventilatory Home Cooling

Very creative. I would wire in a 10 amp circuit breaker or put it on a GFCI outlet to be safe. It's UL rating probably doesn't cover being hard-installed in the ceiling like that. But all in all, I think it is ok.

 

It's not ventilation but maybe gives some ideas to somebody else.
I stripped of insulation from a used gas heater and I installed it in the attic, where I monitored the temperatures the previous year.
Max temperatures in the summer, spring an fall during the day are between 122F and 130F.



Down on top of the electric water heater I have a 3 way valve system, which I use to close and drain the attic circuit from late December to mid February.

The system was almost free and gives me free hot water almost all year long.

This one makes a ton of money. I use the same holes in the wall to bring fresh air in the house in spring and fall. In the summer they are covered on the inside, but at night i use them along with 2 windows and the fan to bring fresh air in.



My electric and gas bills are $900/year down compared to 2008 before I started to modify my house.

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Nice work. Did you do anything special to support the weight of the water heater? Those suckers are heavy when they are full.

Is that a solar to air heater in the bottom picture, or is there some water involved. A lot of bang for the buck. If it is solar to air, would you give us some more description of how it's built?

 

I have a piece of plywood underneath ( 24 x48 3/4 or 1" thick) and it's also installed above the bathroom's corner wall, so it's not coming down.

Just Air. I was thinking to put some copper pipes in, but with the attic heater there is no need of that.
Would be to complicated and to expensive and would take too much time to recoup the money.
The gas heater was free from a friend, who changed his with a bigger electric one.

 

This is the video that I've used to build my panel

And a site for every type of project that you can think of is

BuildItSolar: Solar energy projects for Do It Yourselfers to save money and reduce pollution

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I'm building a new one for me, little bit bigger 4ft x 10 ft and with glass instead of plastic, and the work will be more professional for the second one.

 

This is how the finished panel looks.

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Could you give us an idea what the interface to the house looks like?

Do you run a hose in a window?

Do you partially cover the sun portion or restrict airflow into the house to modulate heating on milder days?

 

That's very professional looking.:rockon:

 

This is inside where the hot air comes in. 6" opening. The other opening is in the bathroom.



Because I live In a subdivision I cannot have the panel hanging vertically on the side of the house, so I had to put it in the back, where it does not look that good but nobody can see it, and I have the sun shining all day. For this reason, I also had to use some duct vents from the panel to the house. (this is my last house in a subdivision with HOA)





When is not cold outside and get's to hot inside, I just close my master bedroom door and let the panel overheat the master bedroom, bath, and the office. When I live the master bedroom's door open I just open the back door and let the cold air to come in and balance the temperature in the house, and I also get fresh air in the house. When the outside temperature goes down, I use every bit of heat I get from the panel.

 

The bedroom is the hot output and the bathroom is the return? Or do both let out heat in the hot part of the day?

How about at night? I guess the only airflow is natural convection so as long as the solar is below the opening to the house cold air won't climb up the hose?

And in summer when you need Air Conditioning? Do you cover it with white plastic or do you just disconnect it and close up the hole in the side of the house?

I ask because I'd like to do a setup similar to this but the humidity is very high here so I can't afford to open the windows or doors to let out excess heat especially when it's hot enough that I'm already running AC to cool off the house.

edit: just noticed you are in Buford, GA. I'm due north of you in Knoxville, TN. Pretty similar climate within a degree or two of you most of the year.

 

Inside the panel I have a bimetal termostat (ebay) that closes the curent circuit at 105F, and starts a 6" inline fan that pushes 260 CFM/min, and opens the circuit at 77F and the air flow stops.

The Fan pushes the air form bathroom through the panel and the hot air is pushed in the master bedroom. In the bathroom I use a damper to stop the air flow after the sun goes down, in case that I come home late.
At night I also use some magnetic covers together with the dampers to stop the cold air from coming in.

In the summer I disconnect the panel and store it. I use the holes in the wall in the spring and fall, and a little bit in the summer to bring cold air at night in the house. Between approx. 15 June and 15 august I cannot use them because here in GA we have to much humidity.