Heating a coop w/ no electric- (make your own solar)

[Marli]

I'm sure there must be a lot of folks who don't have the luxury of electricity running to their coop, and therefore may worry about heating.

I have NEVER used this, but I thought with all the construction-creative people on this board, someone might be interested in it.

Make a solar powered heater


If anyone does do it, let me know how it goes!

 

[2mnypets]

That is an awesome idea Marli. Thanks for seeing it and deciding to post it here. I see another DIY project underway. Will definetely let my hubby know. Might even just do it myself.

 

[suburbanhomesteader]

Speaking of solar, this was my post on April 18th:

If you have enough sunlight for solar and all you need the power for is to warm the house, you could try a couple of passive solar ideas.

1) Windows or twin- or triple-walled greenhouse plastic on the south side

2) A trombe wall or other collection point. I used 1 gallon milk jugs, painted black, to act as solar absorbers. The smaller absorbers will heat up faster than a large volume of water (once I used black 55 gallon drums which worked great if we had sun every other day. However, in Indiana, it wasn't uncommon to have a several day stretch of cloudy weather.

3) Another passive collection technique is called a "heat grabber" by Mother Earth News. I built a couple of these for my house this winter, and they made a HUGE difference:

http://www.motherearthnews.com/Green-Home-Building/1977-09-01/Mothers-Heat-Grabber.aspx

http://www.jrwhipple.com/sr/solheater.html

Also, remember that the chickens will generate their own heat, so if the sheltered area is tight enough and insulated enough, they will help themselves. I read that one chicken generates 1 BTU!

A very interesting book about keeping chickens in a greenhouse-like environment is Solviva

Hope this helps!

 

[erinm]

Marli,

Are there more detailed directions for the solar heater? Are all of the cans connected by pipe? Thanks erinm.