How To Build a Solar Furnace For Under $50

DIY-Homemade-Solar-Furnace

Finding a cheap and efficient way to heat your home can prove to be difficult, but with a few useful tricks you can solve this problem in a single weekend. There are different types of heating systems that you can build at home, but this solar furnace is among the best ones. The best part of it is its eco-friendliness as you will be using solar power to generate enough heat to make your home warm and welcoming. You can build this solar furnace at home, on you own and easily heat more than just one room. The entire project won’t cost you more than $50 so it’s definitely worth a shot. You can find the list of supplies on the video below together with a great video tutorial that will guide you through every step of this clever project.

25 Responses to “How To Build a Solar Furnace For Under $50”

  1. PJ says:

    Don’t see a link.

  2. Corey says:

    you don’t use a fan or anything to move the air?

    • Andrew Bugbee says:

      Cool air is drawn into the flex tubing from the bottom. As the air warms, it rises up through the tubing. A mild upward pitch on the pipe must be maintained in order for the warm air to keep moving into your house. As the air moves upward, it draws the cooler air from the house into the tubing at the bottom.
      No fan needed

      • Jeff says:

        Would it work better if a real small fan was placed over the opening inside the house? Maybe one of those 3 inch fans used to keep a computer cool.

  3. Teresa says:

    Where’s the supply list?

  4. Josh says:

    How about a fascia-like product for the heat capture?

    • steve B says:

      Many are using aluminum soffits to capture the heat. Painted black. I hear black nylon screen (screen door screen) is doing even better, 3 layers stretched 1/2″ apart. Curious to try those.

  5. Mike Taylor says:

    Cant find material list, and instructions for solar furance

  6. don says:

    What is required to circulate the air?

    • mike says:

      You don’t need anything to cause it to circulate. Hot air rises naturally, so as soon as the air in the unit is warmer than the air above it in the house, the warmer air will rise up into the house. The unit does, therefor, need to be lower than the window.

    • Bert says:

      Convection. Heat rises, so the warm air rises up the PC into the house. This creates lower pressure in the solar collector, which causes it to draw air from the house through the two smaller hoses on the left.

    • Paul Crabtree says:

      hot air rises.

  7. Lon DeWeese says:

    I would like to find directions on this solar furnace but when I click
    the links all I find are ads????

    If you have the instructions on how to build a residential solar furnace, please
    let me know how to obtain them.

    Lon DeWeese
    Hildreth, NE

  8. Andrew Jackson says:

    It’s in the YouTube video

  9. rick says:

    cool ideal. if you guys watch the video he explains the parts and how to build it. pretty easy actually.

  10. It’s called a thermal siphon. Look it up.

  11. May says:

    Thank you makes perfect sense!! Basic easy to build!!

  12. tim says:

    i think you’re pretty clueless. you use insulated dryer vent the only place you don’t want insulation and uninsulated pipe and glass elsewhere. the return air is about a hundredth the capacity as the hot air pipe.
    a much better design is to remove the dryer vent and replace it with several (zig-zagged) layers of black window screen and use dryer vent for the runs to the house.

    • George Evans says:

      I can’t picture the description using window screen. Can you put up a You tube video of this method? thanks.

  13. John says:

    I would have liked to see a thermometer to see how warm the air actually gets.

  14. steve B says:

    I have a question on the clear covering. I now use Plexiglass. It sags when temps reach 180 degrees f. If I were build a larger furnace, would clear roll-type vinyl sheeting work to cover the furnaces? Would it sag more or sag less when temps rise? It seems it would cool faster by outside air, but I do not know.

  15. John says:

    An interesting Idea. Unfortunately it will only work in very mild climates.
    In the demo most of the heat would be lost from the pipe going to the window.
    The heat accumulator pipe in the box should be black to absorb heat not silver reflective.
    Also the air flow would be very restricted by the tiny air intake lines.

  16. Sharon says:

    Can you build this into a wall rather than using a window?

  17. Renjie says:

    I’m just wondering if you have an updated video showing what’s the temp like in that room if you cover or close the pipe bringing air into the room
    And also checking the temp in the room after you uncover the pipe.

  18. Valerie says:

    A materials list is not required. Just watch the video.

    I would make my intake longer so it reaches the floor, to grab the coolest air.

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