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Blogs > RockyG666 > god's servant's blog


RockyG666 63M
1747 posts
10/20/2014 9:08 am

Last Read:
10/20/2014 6:46 pm
storing heat
I made a heat sink in the green house using two 55 gallon drums. I was using the 2 liters up there, but they were too unstable. I was always knocking them over and sometimes they would fall into the plants.

it is not that critical that I keep the greenhouse warm this year. I only have Norway spruce seedlings in it, and they prefer the cold. too warm is not good for them. I have decided to move all the 2 liters into the windows of the church and see if that makes any difference. I have also decided to do another lower-height pop can furnace that will blow solar warmed air into the garage attic, which will ultimately rise into the greenhouse.

I am using plastic milk crates to contain the bottles and it works pretty well. there are 40 bottles in the bottom row pictured. I figure I can get 3 rows high, and I can get another set of 3 rows of 40 on the left of the window. that is 240 2 liter bottles of water. 2 liters is .528344 gallons. that means I can get 126 gallons of water in black bottles up in the window.

I have been tracking the temperatures of the bottles and of the church and I am not really seeing anything going on yet. it is all mid 60s. I am hoping that as it gets colder out, the difference will be more noticeable. the principal is that water retains heat better than almost anything else. I am hoping the water will get heated up by the sun and stay warmer than it is outside into the evening. the windows are double pane and facing south.

I am also putting Fresnel lens sheets between the bottles and the windows. a Fresnel lens is a high power magnifying glass. Fresnel lenses are used in the old projection TVs that nobody wants anymore since flat screens got so cheap. I have been collecting them when I see them thrown away. I have a dozen or so 3 x 5 (?) sheets of the stuff. I save the plexi-glass too.

my problem is that I don't know how Fresnel lenses work? which way should they face? one side looks like the other? is it really making any difference at all? or worse, it is making TOO much difference? there is a way to use these lenses to make a high power destructive beam from the sun. I keep checking on it when the sun is strong.