Using aluminum cans to help heat your home sounds like a wacky idea at first, but a Canadian company has turned the idea into a profitable business. The company, Cansolair Inc., has been building solar-powered heating panels out of recycled aluminum cans and even won awards with their design.
Why Recycled Cans?
The company’s pop can heaters have been described as “green energy and recycling all rolled into one”, and have proven to be very cost effective and efficient as well. One customer reported “on the coldest days of winter I need no other heat source as it easily produces enough heat”.
The Cansolair solar panel is about 4 ft. wide by 8 ft. tall. It can produce up to 10,000 BTUs per hour and raise the temperature of the air passing through it by 50F or more. It includes a blower to force the air through the cans which increases it’s efficiency.
How Aluminum Can Heaters Work
The panels are usually attached to the outside of a wall and provide heat for the nearest room. To be effective, the panel needs to face south (or north if the building is in the southern hemisphere).
The heaters are designed to draw air from the floor level of a room and pass it directly to the solar panel outside, where it is forced through the columns of aluminum cans, which have holes cut in the tops and bottoms to allow air flow. The air is then returned through the wall near the ceiling level and at up to 50F higher temperature.
The cans work well because they are constructed of thin-walled aluminum which has excellent thermal properties. Black paint on the outside to aid in heat absorption. Other materials could work as well, but would be much more expensive.
Make Your Own
Cansolair may be the only company that is producing these units commercially, but there have been many other people who have built their own using easily available materials.
Frank Gombik of Ontario, Canada constructed one to heat his workshop in the winter, and Daniel Strohl of Vermont constructed one to heat his garage.
Daniel decided to take advantage of the south-facing side of his garage and built a solar furnace to collect some of that sunshine that was just bouncing off the garage and going to waste. His simple heater is a free-standing unit built with 45 pop cans, some plywood and 2×4’s, covering it with Plexiglas, and using vacuum cleaner hoses at the inlet and outlet.
Frank needed a new double-door entry for his workshop, and because it was facing south, he decided to include solar heaters into the new doors. He used a total of 176 cans in his unit, and added some temperature sensing and recording devices to measure the efficiency of his new heaters.
Constructing this type of solar heater is well within the skills of the average handyman. The aluminum cans are free and the other materials inexpensive. This project has the double advantage of free solar energy and conserving our natural resources, not to mention the free heat in the winter!
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