Ken sent in the details for his solar air heating collector. The collector uses an efficient flow through absorber that is made from vented aluminum soffit material.
Flow through absorber designs like Ken's are very effective at picking up the heat from the absorber, and give high collector efficiencies.
This is how the collector works -- cool room air enters at the bottom, flows up and toward the back through the vented soffit absorber, and then out the outlet at the top. The air flowing through the soffit material efficiently picks up heat from the solar heated soffit material.
This picture of the collector on its side before the glazing is installed shows the vented aluminum soffit material that acts as the absorber. The air flows through the small vent holes in the soffit material, picking up heat at it goes through.
The picture above shows the collectors metal frame made from stud track material.
See all the construction details on Ken's collector...
Thanks to Ken for sending this in!
Gary
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