I’d enjoy seeing some pictures when it is finished. I’ve been curious about the solar projects.

Ironically, after reading Emergency, I lost interest in survivalism. hmm.

Forget about drinking the beer and those cans.. I purchased some really aluminum solar air heater profiles from solarwindowheaters.com. It only took me 4 hours to build a 36 x 48 solar air heater and the rest of the day I enjoyed my homemade brew….

The other thing I wanted to add was I got more info from this ‘solar heater for rv’ post of yours then from ‘Emergency’

@ MoneyEnergy: I’m not sure. Before reading it, I would check whenshtf.com, and make extensive plans to buy preps (I’m a teenager). But after reading it, I just got so sick of it and can’t even think about it anymore.

re: toilet paper- use wash clothes 😉
That’s an extensive list. Thanks for the link.

Are you planning on installing a check value for the inlet to avoid it drawing air out of your RV when it is cold?

Ideally, if you really wanted to make it as useful (and permanent) as possible, you would put a check value on the inlet and a two-way value downstream of that. This would ensure that hot air doesn’t leak out the RV when it is cold and also allow you to shut the two-value when you don’t want/need the heat.

After some quick googling of ‘low force air check valve’, I found some check valves that might work.

@Laurie – We have sun almost all year around. We can not turn the RV, so we have the situation you describe at the end. In the winter I used to open the blinds to the front windows to get some passive heating. I think this will help.

I made one for my garage bay last winter minus the soda cans. I used two by fours and the clear sheets that Lowes sells for greenhouse covers. Took the reflective aluminum coated bubble wrap often used to insulate water heaters as the back of it. Painted it black. Pull air from the bottom of my garage and used the garage door at night to insulate it and keep air from cooling off in it. I kept my garage over 20 degrees warmer than last year and I do not face south fully. This year I plan on adding the aluminum cans which greatly increases the surface area and improves the efficiency of the device.

The main problem most houses have with solar heating is lack of thermal mass in the house. Air is a very poor holder of thermal mass. A better system (though more complicated) includes a liquid or solid thermal storage system. You run water through the solar collector, through a heat exchanger in a storage system (usually a salt water insulated containter), a second heat exchanger runs into the house and using liquid tubing underneath the floor panels to transfer the heat in. I have seen it houses but never in an RV. With a stationary one it might be possible to create one. http://www.builditsolar.com/Projects/SpaceHeating/SolarShed/solarshed.htm
contains some details on one guy’s design in Colorado.

I am a full-time rv’er and I have been eyeing these clever things as well. Just like everything else in an RV, there are “special” requirements. Like I would like it to be as light & small as possible. Well, small may be a bit much to ask, although I have about the equivalent of a 60-80 sq. ft. room to heat, so something a little smaller may suffice, mine will be about 2’x 5′, due to material size availability. But as far as light goes, I believe I have the answer.
Obviously the (whatever) cans & headers are pretty light. But a wood enclosure that size will not be particularly light. Initially I thought of styrofoam, but it’s only rated for use up to 165F, does nasty things after that. However, they have that new generation of insulation available at Home Depot, rated to 250F. Most folks say they don’t exceed 220F, these heaters, even in summer. It also has a great R value, 5.9 for a 1″ thick panel. Thermasheath it’s called.
http://www.homedepot.com/Building-Materials-Insulation-Sheathings/h_d1/N-5yc1vZ1xhbZbaxx/R-100549260/h_d2/ProductDisplay?langId=-1&storeId=10051&catalogId=10053
The stuff is exterior rated, but it’s just foil covered, we’ll have to see. Alternately, there are coatings you can buy, kinda like hard candy coating but tougher, made just for styrofoam, should oughta work here I think. Anyhow, something can be done if the foil isn’t enough.
Home Depot also has clear polycarb panels made by SunTuff, supposedly pass light as well as glass (although solar sites rate it a little lower). Unbreakable is another “special” RV attribute.
This post is over a year old by this time, I wonder if Jacob needs some help emptying those cans? Would love to see his results, I make enough mistakes when I have complete directions. I was thinking I might be the 1st RV’er to do it, but would gladly give up 1st place to learn something from my dinette seat, instead of who knows how many wasted hours.
So just thought I would add my 2 cents worth, in case there are any other RV’ers out there thinking of the same, took me awhile to weed thru all this. From the responses here, not sure if this is about RV’s or not. Survivalists, heck, we’re all survivalists, especially in this lifestyle 😉