Beercollector! » !Greenhor ns here!

!Greenhor ns here!

What is ‘beer-collector’

What do we call beer-collector? It’s an air-operated solar collector, which is built from beer-cans.It can be home-made, but of course it’s available with non-beer-can light absorber (from felt or heat-technology-tube). It costs about 200.000 HUF, but if you have a little talent for DIY, it will take you about 60-70000 HUF. Mine looks like this (picture on the top left).

The structure of the beer-collector. You have to construct tubes of beer-cans, by drilling them on the top and the bottom. If you are interested in the technology.

My collector is made of 15 tubes, each of them contains 10 cans. I glued cans by silicone adhesive, which is heat-resistant up to 250 C. This material is flexible but provides good setting. I fitted spinning units between the cans, also made of the aluminium material of the cans. These units are fixed windmills. Since the top of the cans narrows, the air coming from the bottom speeds up, passes through the spinnig units and then bursts to the superficies of the next can and licks heat from there. So the beer-collector is made of can- columns, each having a collector-can on the top and the bottom so forming a common airspace. Cans are painted black, in order to absorb heat more intensively. Can-columns are placed behind a shatter-proof , water-proof, uv-stabilized transparent plastic (policarbonate) which is mounted in a wood- or in my case metal – frame. This helps capturing heat. On the back there is a multilayer insulator system with heat-mirror, fibreboard, 5cm rockwool, fibreboard, zinc-plate.

Where is beer-collector placed? Beer-collector is placed on the wall of the house, and at it’s opposite corners the wall is burst. In the room at the bottom of the collector there’s an air-extractor fan, which extracts air from the flat. This air gets into the lowest collector can and starts moving up while the SUN heats the cans so air in them warms up. This warm air accumulates in the top can, and breaks through the top burst into the airspace of the room.

What is it good for? For heating the room in the between-season period, and in winter for the keeping of temperature. When warm air is streaming into the room, the thermostat will switch on more rarely,so you will use up less from that more and more expensive gas.

What can you expect? Today it’s the 15.th Oct. 2006. We have left for the weekend, I switched off the system.It was 19C when I arrived at home, I switched on the beer-collector at 10.30. At 14.30 it was 22C in the room, and 21C in the other room, since I opened the door between the two rooms. I don’t have to use the heating system today.

Don’t expect miracles! If the Sun is not shining, it won’t be in operation. It works in case of diffuse light, but not in rain. It doesn’t replace heating system, but helps making the temperature and makes the flat more comfortable.

How to start?

Since we speak about beer-collector, you need beer-cans (you can make it from aluminium plates, too). For a 2m2 collector you need 150 cans (15 columns, 10 cans each).

If you choose the classical way of building, you have to produce spinning units too, for attaching the cans,and it takes you about 30 cans more.

If you don’t want to tinker with them, then you can use the opening of the cans for spinnig the air. In this case you have to be very careful with the positioning of the cans: they have to be rotated 180 degrees, so that the air really could turn. You can make some bore-holes next to the openings, so that it should reduce stream resistance.

For cutting the bottoms of the cans you can use hole-cutter. It’s diameter is 45mm. If you want to use this, you need a adjustable speed drill. This cutter is available in shops, but I have it made. Mine is made of tool steel.

Since it is quite dangerous, it’s better to use something to protect your hands.

I made it of plastic and plexi, I will take a picture about how it looks after cutting 600 cans. It was worth using.

You can also use a sharp knife or emery cloth, angle grinder for cutting the tops and bottoms.

After cutting the holes, you have to wash, sterilize and dry the cans.I myself bought a bottle-washing brush (100 HUF), rubber gloves and one flacon of commercial washing up liquid.

Here comes the sticking:

You need heat-proof silicone adhesive (you can buy it at large DIY shops), black coloured ones, because of aesthetic reasons and for practical reasons it has to be heat-proof up to 250C. Don’t use kitchen-filler, because altough it is heat-proof up to 1000C, it is rigid and not flexible, so it can break during the sticking.
Before the sticking I bought a pack of roof-laths, and I fabricated splints, so that the cans should be straight and always above each other.Cans can be fixed by rubber bands or strings.

Before sticking you have to decide, which spinnig solution to choose.

a) the classical one with the windmill-like units made of the material of the cans

b) openings of the cans + drilled holes

c) 30 cm diameter inner tube (for example from crepe aluminium or aluminium foil-covered wood bar). Regarding the streaming this solution seems to be the best, since it excludes passive elements from the stream.

The 2 m2 beercollector consists of 15 columns each contains 10 cans. My experience is that better to stick 8 cans together, 1-1 cans should be sticked right into the collector’s box, this way in the end it will be easier to fit the whole together.

So the sticking. You have to spread silicone adhesive on the opening of the cans (in case you have spinnig unit, put it to the silicone adhesive-ring), push the next can to it.

Don’t be sparing with the silicone adhesive, if it is stuck together badly, it will break and it is always a bigger excercise to scratch it from the cans and start it again than doing it well from the beginning (this is my own experience, too).

It doesn’t matter, if the silicone adhesive protrudes, it is black, and everything will be painted black, so it won’t be glaring.

If you don’t want to tinker with the glue, you can push the cans into each other, or you can do it with a ring made of a can. I suggest the silicone adhesive-solution.

Some time has passed, and thank you new developments are on the way.

Using of spinnings is not so important, and if you have a weak ventilator, it is totally useless, since it increases the resistance of your collector.

Ok. You have your can-columns, now here comes how to make the collector-boxes. I show you some cases:

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At the very moment it seems, that the most effective solution is made by our friend ‘Pipás’ (drawings from Rush):

Click for the larger view.

Fundamentals for the collector-boxes: these boxes form a common airspace between the columns, they distribute the air coming from the bottom between them, and then they collect it on the top. There are 55mm holes on the top of the boxes, one on each 65mm. So there are 10 mm between the holes. These holes are for sticking the columns in. The advantage of the Pipás’s solution is, that because of the geometrical construction the amount of air streaming in each column is almost the same. At collector boxes like this you don’t need spinning units, only in the central 3 ones, one spinning unit in every third can, since resistance must be increased in this area.

If you don’t have a possibility or tools for building a collector like this, you can apply the solutions below:

plaster board, in this case you have to buy U profile, a minimum of 65 mm in width

you build a frame from these, and you nail lateral faces to it

If you have never used a riveter, just try to use it. I takes about 1500-2000 HUF, and you can work faster with it.

Buy board aluminium for the lateral faces, you can get it in bigger stores, and you can cut it with plate shears. For cutting the top holes, use for example thread saw.

Buy or make joining stumps to the back of the boxes. You can make them from a plate or you can buy stove-pipe stumps. They must be with a diameter about 120mm.

Dotting with nails- 66mm

Pre-drilling with 5mm drill

Drilled with hole-cutter- diameter 55 mm

Without setting rectangles

Cutting in-out holes

Hole cut with a plate shears

Stump bend from plates

Back parts are ready

An almost ready piece, only the plating must be done on the edges
silicone adhesive, plate shears, drill, riveter, hole-cutter and a few hours. That’s all you need.