Solar Greenhouse Heat Sink
Solar Greenhouse Heat Sink
Find out how to make a solar powered heatsink for your greenhouse
solar | generalThe
Greenhouse provides gardeners in a cool climate such as that in the UK the opportunity to grow a wider range of fruits and vegetables and also to extend the growing season. To maximise the benefits of a
greenhouse some form of heating is required to guarantee a frost-free winter, and warm nighttime temperatures.
In this article we will look at how
solar power can be used to keep a
greenhouse warm in an environmentally friendly manner.
Greenhouse Heatsink
During the first series of BBC2's
It's Not Easy Being Green, Dick Strawbridge put together an elegant
greenhouse heating system using a
10 Watt PV Solar Panel, a
12V battery, a small
fan, some PVC
waste pipe, and 1 cubic metre of crushed glass.
The aim of the
greenhouse heatsink is to keep the greenhouse warm at night, and also to keep the greenhouse from getting too hot in the day.
Making a Greenhouse Heatsink System
A hole - the bigger the better, but ideally 1 metre wide and deep - is well insulated (using polystyrene and foil) and filled with anything through which air can pass which stores heat. Dick Strawbridge used crushed glass, however
pea gravel (available from builders' merchants and pictured above) could be used instead as could small pieces of
metal, small recycled
bottles of water,
fire bricks, etc.
Note that if a material feels cold to the touch, it will work well as a heatsink/heat store.
The
solar panel charges the battery which in turn drives a small recycled
PC cooling fan (shown above) 24 hours per day. The fan sucks air in from the top (apex) of the greenhouse where the air is hottest and pumps it through the 38mm standard PVC waste pipe into the base of the
heatsink hole. The hot air then rises through the heatsink warming the heatsink material and cooling the air which emerges through a vent (e.g. an old chimney pot or waste pipe) and into the greenhouse.
At nighttime the now cool air at the top of the greenhouse is pushed through the now warm heatsink heating up the air and cooling down the heatsink material. This warm air then passes through the vent into the greenhouse where it helps to keep up the temperature.
More Information
NEW for more information about putting together a solar powered greenhouse heatsink system, take a look at our new article
Greenhouse Heatsink Connection Diagram. There we look at how you go about choosing the
solar panel,
battery, and
fan, and how to connect everything together safely.
Article Last Modified: 11:32, 24th Jun 2008Comment on this Article
If you have any comments on this article, please email them to
neil@reuk.co.uk.
My greenhouse is frost free with passive solar heating. Try 4 pint plastic milk containers in corners of greenhouse, heat up during day and except for outer one don't freeze at night seems to work very well here (but i do live in devon).
Brian, 10th June 2009 |
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