[youtube:R9bBnRQWRro;[link:your keyword here];http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R9bBnRQWRro&feature=related]Using aluminum cans to help heat your home sounds like a wacky idea at first, but a Canadian company has turned the idea into a profitable business. The company, Cansolair Inc., has been building solar-powered heating panels out of recycled aluminum cans and even won awards with their design.

Why Aluminum Cans Work Well

The company’s aluminum can heaters have been described as “green energy and recycling all rolled into one”, and have proven to be very cost effective and efficient as well. One customer reported “on the coldest days of winter I need no other heat source as it easily produces enough heat”.

Cansolair’s solar heater takes up a little less area than a 4 x 8 sheet of plywood and is about 4 1/2 in. thick. It can produce up to 10,000 BTUs per hour and will raise the temperature of the air passing through it by up to 50F. A fan increases it’s efficiency by pushing the air through the columns of cans.

How Aluminum Can Heaters Work

The heaters are frequently installed on the outside walls of a home or other building, and of course, in a location that gets a lot of sun. While they won’t help you much on a cloudy day, they can make a big difference in your heating bill on cold sunny days.

The cans have holes cut in their tops and bottoms and are arranged in vertical columns in a panel. Air is drawn from the floor level of room through the exterior wall into the solar panel where it passes through the cans and back into the building at a higher level and at up to 50F higher temperature.

The cans work well because they are constructed of thin-walled aluminum which has exceptional thermal properties. Black paint on the outside to aid in heat absorption. Other materials could work as well, but would be much more expensive.

Great Project For Do-It-Yourselfers

Cansolair may be the only company that is producing these units commercially, but there have been many other people who have built their own using commonly available materials.

Daniel Strohl of Vermont built a unit to heat his garage in the winter, while Frank Gombik of Ontario, Canada built one to heat his workshop.

Daniel used the south-facing side of his garage as a location for his solar furnace after noting that sunshine was just bouncing off the garage and going to waste. He built a simple free-standing heater that contains 45 pop cans and uses vacuum cleaner hoses to pipe air to and from his garage.

Frank needed a new double-door entry for his workshop, and because it was facing south, he decided to include solar heaters into the new doors. He used a total of 176 cans in his heater, and added some temperature sensing and recording devices to measure the efficiency of his new heaters.

Construction of an aluminum can solar heater is not very difficult. The materials are commonly available and inexpensive, you’ll be doing your part to conserve natural resources, not to mention you get free heating in the winter!