I've added a couple of photos (taken Monday) to my web page showing construction and installation of passive solar heating panels in a workshop, and added a link to the page at the top of my "Projects and Pictures" page (below).
The shop now boasts wall-to-wall floors - and it looks pretty good (I wish it were mine!)
-- Morris Dovey DeSoto Solar DeSoto, Iowa USA
Do most shops not have wall to wall floors? Are the floors smaller and leave a gap between the edge of the floor and the wall in most shops? :)
| Do most shops not have wall to wall floors? Are the floors smaller | and leave a gap between the edge of the floor and the wall in most | shops? :)
My shops all /have/ had wall-to-wall floors, but this shop (as of the previous web page version) only had topsoil - mud, actually, because it'd been raining when the roof and walls went up.
He's also done the electrical work and installed lighting and a ceiling fan. It's looking a lot less like a farm equipment shed and much more like the kind of place where you'd like to keep and use good woodworking tools.
For the city folks: outbuildings in farm country frequently have dirt floors - and I've visited dirt-floored woodworking shops and seen cabinet saws, lathes, etc parked (and used) on the dirt. On the other extreme, I've seen equipment sheds ("garages" for tractors, combines, etc) with floors as sparkle-clean as the ritziest aircraft hanger.
-- Morris Dovey DeSoto Solar DeSoto, Iowa USA
Had a look at the website. Very interesting with those solar panels. I do have a few questions.
The interior of the shop looks pretty solid on the inside of the panels. Can I assume it's solid enough to make it difficult for anyone to break into the building through the solar panel walls?
Aside from the inside vents being kept reasonably clear for airflow, is there any reason to keep the rest of those inside vent walls clear from obstructions of any type?
The shop looks big enough to set up for temporary onsite living quarters while a new home is being built on the property. Once that's built, move in and have a workshop ready site immediately ready for use. Wish it was my shop. Maybe in my next life.
Thanks.
Meant to ask. Is there such a thing as 'active' solar panels as compared to 'passive'? The only 'active' I can envision is solar panels that follow the sun as it rises and sets.
An "active" solar panel would be IMO a photovoltaic.
Mark
Don't all shops have wall-to-wall floors?
So it had a dirt floor.
Mother Earth news had an article in a recent issue describing how to build these units. URL:
Looks good Morris - did you use plastic or glass for the window covering?
Did you add closable vents to stop a reverse "cooling effect" at nights?
I wonder if some kind of one-way plastic film "flap" would work as an automatic venting system? e.g. think of a check valve - top vent opens into the building only, bottom vent opens out to the solar panel only
It's fairly sturdy, but a determined person could probably chop their way through. It'd be a _lot_ easier just to go through one of the windows.
| Aside from the inside vents being kept reasonably clear for | airflow, is there any reason to keep the rest of those inside vent | walls clear from obstructions of any type?
Nope. I think the plan is to use the wall for storing tools.
| The shop looks big enough to set up for temporary onsite living | quarters while a new home is being built on the property. Once | that's built, move in and have a workshop ready site immediately | ready for use. Wish it was my shop. Maybe in my next life.
I think (but didn't measure) the shop is 30' x 40', with the short sides facing north and south.
I'd like a shop like that, too. My present shop is bigger, but it's more difficult to heat, it's leaky, and requires rent. I'm not too keen on the steel interior walls and ceiling - seems to me that might make the shop really noisy.
-- Morris Dovey DeSoto Solar DeSoto, Iowa USA
An "active" panel generally has/needs a blower and some kind of control system to function properly.
I prefer to let the sun do all the work and to design the desired behaviors into the collector itself. I also have a fondness for devices that work really well with a minimum of moving parts.
-- Morris Dovey DeSoto Solar DeSoto, Iowa USA
| Mother Earth news had an article in a recent issue describing | how to build these units. | URL: |
Yuppers. Did you notice that they had a few kind words for DeSoto Solar?
The author of one of the articles has a fairly good DIY page at
-- Morris Dovey DeSoto Solar DeSoto, Iowa USA
Epictitus wrote: | Looks good Morris - did you use plastic or glass for the window | covering?
It's a UV-protected twin-wall polycarbonate product. Although it can be cut, it's difficult to break. The brochure shows an 80 mph hardball pitch bouncing off an (undented) sheet.
-- Morris Dovey DeSoto Solar DeSoto, Iowa USA
Epictitus wrote: | Did you add closable vents to stop a reverse "cooling effect" at | nights? | | I wonder if some kind of one-way plastic film "flap" would work as | an automatic venting system? e.g. think of a check valve - top | vent opens into the building only, bottom vent opens out to the | solar panel only
Don't need _any_ moving parts to control the airflow. Follow the link below to see why...
-- Morris Dovey DeSoto Solar DeSoto, Iowa USA
Just Wondering wrote: | Morris Dovey wrote: | || efgh wrote: || ||| Do most shops not have wall to wall floors? Are the floors ||| smaller and leave a gap between the edge of the floor and the ||| wall in most shops? :) || || My shops all /have/ had wall-to-wall floors, but this shop (as of || the previous web page version) only had topsoil - mud, actually, || because it'd been raining when the roof and walls went up. || | So it had a dirt floor.
Hmm... (Not wanting to offend) Ok, it had a dirt floor.
-- Morris Dovey DeSoto Solar DeSoto, Iowa USA
Just Wondering wrote: | Morris Dovey wrote: || I've added a couple of photos (taken Monday) to my web page showing || construction and installation of passive solar heating panels in a || workshop, and added a link to the page at the top of my "Projects || and Pictures" page (below). || || The shop now boasts wall-to-wall floors - and it looks pretty good || (I wish it were mine!) || || | Don't all shops have wall-to-wall floors?
I guess it depends on what you're prepared to accept as a floor, or whether the shop includes an indoor swimming pool. :-)
Methinks I should have specified "hard surface" floor to avoid confusion (this /is/ usenet, after all).
-- Morris Dovey DeSoto Solar DeSoto, Iowa USA
Hiya Morris!
Ohhh...if I had a work-space like that! I did, but retired...but,..yeah...the non-competition agreement ran out..and now I have hired 2 people, one from my previous company. My conscience is clear on this as the new owners haven't done a thing to keep the solid surface profit centre going in their business model. So I have started the ball rolling on expansion. I have the opportunity to move into two portable class-rooms, which I can put on the property in any orientation I like. The building code enforcers won't let me join the two portables together, they must remain 'portable'. So, one will be The Dirty Room and spray centre as I will again start on custom laminate tops as well as solid surface. NO post-formed installations!!!!
Now, one concern I have, is dust. I think the passive aspect of your product is the cat's meow (pyjamas), but would it be possible to gently force-feed the panels with, say, some muffin fans, and then push the air through some filtration? Or do you think that there's enough convection to pull through some basic filtration? In my line of work, dust is a bitch. The stuff is like talcum powder in consistency, but heavier so it does fall down to floor level pretty quickly. What if one made a box to hold a furnace filter, and then reduced to the inlet of your panel? Kinda like a funnel shape?
I'm sure all that has crossed your mind already...would you like to share?
r
buildings (this has more to do with local codes than anything else), both metal. In the arched roof part (think Nissen hut, or, for those not familiar, smaller Quonset hut), he sprayed foam insulation on the walls and ceiling. It serves to isolate the shop from outside noise quite well, while also serving to muffle some indoor noise (he left the foam open on the upper walls and ceiling).
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