Читать книгу The Self-Sufficiency Handbook - Alan Bridgewater - Страница 56

When we first became interested in self-sufficiency in the 1970s, people were experimenting with different types of homemade heat collectors built from old central heating radiators, black plastic tubes, rubber inner tubes, and so on. Commercial systems were coming onto the market at that time, but they were generally bulky and very expensive, considered alternative and hippie, and, for the most part, not very reliable.

One system I remember was amazingly simple: water trickled down over a glass-covered galvanized steel roof into a trough and then into a tank in the cellar, where it was used for hot water and space heating. This system did not look very pretty, and it was a huge free-standing structure almost as big as the side of the house, but it was amazingly efficient, with cold water going in at the top end and too-hot-to-touch water coming out the other end. There was another system in which black plastic pipe was wound around and around a massive cylindrical house-high storage tank. Just as with the previously mentioned system, cold water went in at one end and came out hot at the other.

These days, commercially built solar collectors are not only available at very reasonable prices, but they are efficient, sophisticated, and generally well-designed devices. If you simply want to cut energy costs and are looking for a tried-and-true method, solar collectors are good options.

Trombe Controls

Hot day/hot night: In daytime, the vents in the window are open, and the vents in the wall are closed. The air in the space rises by convection; hot air passes out of the two vents at the top of the window, drawing cool air into the bottom vent. The circulating air helps cool the interior.

Hot day/very cold night: In daytime, the top vent in the window and the bottom vent in the wall are open, and the other vents are closed. An additional window/vent toward the back of the interior is open. The air in the space rises by convection; hot air passes out of the top window vent and draws cool air through the interior space.

Hot day/cold night: In daytime, the vents in the window are open, and the vents in the wall are closed. The air in the space rises by convection; hot air passes out of the two vents at the top of the window, drawing cool air into the bottom vent. At night, the vents in the window are closed, and the vents in the wall are open. The hot air in the space between the wall and the window rises and passes into the interior.

Cold day/cold night: In daytime, the vents in the window are closed and the vents in the wall are open. The air in the space rises by convection; warm air passes into the vent at the top of the wall and heats the interior. At night, all vents are closed.