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Solar DIY Space Heating Projects

Plans for a wide variety of solar space heating projects you can build.

Solar space heating can be 25 or more times more cost effective than solar electric (PV) systems, and the systems are excellent DIY projects. Payback for these low cost solar heating systems can be as little as one year.

Directory for this page:

Basics and Guides
Passive space heating systems
Active space heating systems
Geothermal heating
Geothermal Heat Pumps
Thermal Storage (tanks etc.)
Reflectors
Component information for solar heating systems

For more ideas on Solar Space Heating, look here:

The Solar Homes Section has many ideas for solar heating.
An attached Sunspace or Greenhouse can provide both heat, space, and a plant growing area.
The Suppliers Section has many suppliers who make solar house heating gear.

Questions?
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Basics and Guides
Solar Site Survey ...	Before you embark on any of the solar projects listed below, you MUST do a solar site survey. This will ensure that you actually get enough sun on your collector to make it worthwhile. It only takes an hour, its fun, its easy and you will learn something about how the sun moves. Solar Site Survey...
Solar Heating and You (pdf) Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Clearinghouse	A high level (but useful) introduction to solar space heating concepts. Includes solar flat plate collectors, and sunspaces. Includes an interesting and easy experiment you can perform using an existing window and some cardboard. A good intro for adults and kids.
Passive Solar Energy Book (to download) Bruce Anderson and Malcolm Wells The first two chapters provide some solar space heating basics, the other chapters provide details on direct gain, sunspaces, ...	A great book covering passive solar basics, passive solar design, and building of passive solar heating and cooling projects such as solar rooms, solar windows, solar walls, and solar thermosyphon collectors. A free download thanks to the authors.
Solarizing Your Present Home -- Practical Solar Heating Systems You Can Build, edited by Joe Carter, Rodale Press, 1981 Out of print, but readily available at libraries and online used book places .	A good book covering a range of possibilities for retrofitting solar space heating to your home. The 670 page book covers a large number of projects in good detail. More information... Out of print, but readily available at libraries or online used book places.
Thermal Storage Wall Design Manual Alex Wilson New Mexico Solar Energy Association ThermalStorageWallDesignManual.pdf (2mb) The New Mexico Solar Energy Association website ..	This 43 page booklet on thermal storage wall design and construction provides a full design procedure for Trombe and Water Walls, and a great deal of how-to build material as well. Measured performance is provided for several actual thermal storage walls. While some of the material is a bit out of date, it is a very valuable and practical resource. I feel like I had a small part in this, in that I found a copy of this booklet in our local library, and scanned it in so that the NMSEA could put it online. This book is part of the NMSEA technical library. Their technical library is very extensive, and they are trying to work out a way to get more of it online -- you might give them some encouragement in this direction, or volunteer to help them! More info here: http://nmsea.org/lib/
Solar Livestock Housing Handbook, MWPS-23, Iowa State University http://www.mwps.org This book is no longer available at the MWPS site, and the only source I could find was VERY expensive -- its worth a few bucks, but not $99!	This 90 page page book goes through a solar 101 course, and then goes on to cover the design and sizing of several types of solar collectors, and then gives fairly detailed descriptions of 11 solar collector examples. While it primarily addresses AG applications of solar, many of the ideas are interesting and and potentially applicable to other solar heating situations. All for a mere 300 pennies!
Passive Space Heating
Solar Barn/Workshop Gary This project is the cover story in Mother Earth News Dec/Jan 2006/7 issue and was in the Oct/Nov 2005 issue of Home Power Magazine.	A simple, low cost thermosyphon solar space heater for a garage, barn, or workshop (or maybe for a more finished space with some changes). At current propane prices, the project has a one year payback.
Rob's Thermosyphon Solar Heater ...	This is similar to the thermosyphon collector described above, but used for home heating rather than shop heating. It fits into the house very nicely both inside and outside. All the details ... Thanks to Rob for providing this.
Garage/Workshop Sunspace -- Full Details ... Gary The Home Power Magazine article on this project is now available here as a download NEW! Fred's solar shop doors get written up in the paper:	Home Power Magazine article -- issue 117 Feb/Mar 07. This is a simple way to turn your garage into a delightful solar heated and lighted workshop or studio. My all-time favorite Do-It-Yourself solar project! An Alternative to Building Your Own Doors: Here is a variation on this scheme suggested by Ed that uses commercially available doors instead to the home made doors . Details ...
Adding a Window as a Solar Collector Plans for solar window A plan excerpted from the book "Passive Solar Energy", Anderson and Wells	Adding a window to a south wall makes a very effective and efficient solar collector. These plans show a way to add a window to a south wall using very simple window framing -- much less expensive than adding a commercial window.
Thermosyphoning Air Collector Plans for Thermosyphoning Air Collector A plan excerpted from the book "Passive Solar Energy", Anderson and Wells	This is a very simple and cost effective solar heater which can be retrofitted to an existing house, or used in new construction. It uses natural convection -- no blowers, ducts, or controllers needed.
Solar Wall (or Trombe Wall) Plans for Solar Wall A plan excerpted from the book "Passive Solar Energy", Anderson and Wells	The solar wall or Trombe wall is a simple way to provide solar heating from a south facing masonry wall. The wall stores heat and releases it gradually late in the day.
A Water Wall Solar Design Manual (2 MB pdf) David Bainbridge Marshall Goldsmith School of Management	Water walls offer cost effective, efficient, and aesthetically pleasing thermal storage for passive solar heating systems. This design manual covers many types of water walls, and shows how they can be used in solar designs to provide thermal mass. David is also the author of this fine book on batch water heaters.
Very low cost Solar Shop Heater, Don R. and George Waterman http://www.motherearthnews.com	Mother Earth News article, Issue 48, Nov/Dec 1977 describes a very simple homemade collector for heating a shop. The cost is kept down to almost nothing by using poly film glazing and some scrounged parts. If you can scrounge the blower from an old furnace and find some used lumber, this collector probably takes the prize for lowest cost per square foot -- about 10 cents per sqft. The payback period where I live is well under a month!
A Passive Solar Space Heater For Home Use, Worcester Polytechnic Institute www.solar-components.com/SOLARKAL.HTM Note that there are 3 collectors on this page, this description applies to the bottom one -- "A Passive Solar Space Heater for Home Use"	This solar space heater takes advantage of existing windows to avoid cutting holes in your house. You could probably do it on a rental. Very simple -- no fans, no wiring. It will provide more heat than the small window attached collectors below, and has a hinged cover that protects the collector in the summer, and reflects more sunlight onto the collector in the winter. You do not want to allow the sun to shine through the glazing onto the ground (it will just lose heat to the ground) -- have something to intercept the sun in the collector space. The glazing could be the Sunlite HP mentioned, or corrugated Polycarbonate. Collector area makes more difference than any other parameter, so make it as big as you can -- size maters in solar collectors.
Solar window heater http://www.jrwhipple.com/sr/solheater.html	A simple solar thermosyphon heater that connects directly to a window.
Maine Solar Primer "Sun Grabber" Maine Solar Energy Association	Plans for a simple thermosyphon air collector that connects to an existing window. Courtesy of the Main Solar Energy Association
Mother's "Heat Grabber" Mother Earth News http://www.motherearthnews.com	A nice complete set of plans to build a below window solar collector. The collector uses a small part of the bottom of an existing window for the entry and exit vents.
Michigan Renewable Energy and Efficiency Success Stories http://urbanoptions.org	A thermosyphon wall collector.
“TAP” The Sun – The easy, low-cost way to add solar heat to your mobile home or metal outbuilding. Luke Elliot www.motherearthnews.com	Mother Earth News Article, Issue 91 Jan/Feb 1985 How to article on building a Thermosyphoning Air Panel (TAP) solar collector to heat a mobile home or a metal walled building. Sufficient detail to build the project. This 18 sqft collector costs less than a hundred dollars in materials. This is a durable metal and glass construction collector, and should last the life of the building.
Maine Solar Primer Air Heater Maine Solar Energy Association	A simple, wall mounted thermosyphon solar air collector. Courtesy of the Maine Solar Energy Association
Solar Ventilation Wall With Heat Storage Canada Plan Service Download Plans pdf	A solar heating scheme for a barn or shop that integrates a thermosyphon solar collector and thermal storage into the south wall of the building. From the Canada Plan Service: www.cps.gov.on.ca
Integrating Light Transmitting Sheets for Skylights in Roofing and Siding -- Installation Guide From Suntuf	Details on how to integrate plastic glazing panels in roofs or walls to provide lighting and solar gain. From the Suntuf website www.suntuf.com
Passive Solar Shop Heating Canada Plan Service Download Details (pdf) Plan (pdf)	A very simple and inexpensive solar heating scheme for shop or barn that integrates a thermosyphon collector into the south wall structure. From the Canada Plan Service: www.cps.gov.on.ca
Wall integrated thermosyphon air collector http://www.urbanoptions.org	Rough plans for a wall integrated thermosyphon air collector.
Solar Heating a Workshop in Madison County, Iowa, DeSoto Solar http://www.iedu.com/DeSoto/SC_Madison/	This very nice project description shows a fairly large installation of DeSoto solar air collectors for shop heating. One interesting aspect of this installation is how well the collectors are integrated with the shop wall, and how nice the collectors look from the outside and inside -- seems like this approach would work just as well in a house. DeSoto Solar is run by Morris Dovey who can usually be found at the alt.solar.thermal newsgroup.
A $1 per square foot Trombe Wall Nick Pine Nick's wall	This is a really simple way to turn an ordinary uninsulated masonry wall into a passive solar Trombe wall. Costs about a buck a square foot, and no holes to punch in the wall.
Warm Your Swine With Sunshine, Mother Earth News, May/June 1979 www.motherearthnews.com/ ... (if this link does not bring up the article, search the MEN archive for "Warm your swine with sunshine")	This is actually a pretty slick and simple 1979 solar air heating collector. It is integrated into the barn style roof, and would be very inexpensive to build. The increase in price over a conventional roof would be quite small -- maybe less than $1 per sqft! Seems like it would also work well for gambrel roofs on the steep slope. This one is used for heating a swine barn, but it could as easily be used in two legged applications.
A Crude Poly Mini-Sunspace Heater Mini Poly Sunspace	A very simple poly sunspace for heating. This was a quick and dirty project just to see if the idea worked at all. It did.

Active Space Heating
Solar Heat for My Maine Workshop Guy Marsden Guy's outstanding website: www.arttec.net/Solar/BarnHeat.html How to get articles from Home Power ...	Home Power magazine article, issue 89 Excellent article on designing and building a solar radiant floor system for a detached workshop. Lots of design and construction detail. Blow-by-blow construction highs and lows also described.
The Solar Shed for House Heating Solar Shed House Heater Gary NEW! Solar Shed article in the Dec 2007 Mother Earth News ------------> Some great new illustrations, diagrams, and full how-to build information.	This is the setup I use to solar heat my house. It uses 240 sqft of solar water heating collectors mounted on a new garden shed. Heat is stored in a 500 gallon tank that lives in the shed. Heated water is piped to the house as required via insulated underground pipes. Excruciating detail is provided :)
Hydronic Heating on Renewable Energy Rod Hyatt How to get articles from Home Power ...	Home Power Magazine article, issue 79 Very good article on implementing a hydronic radiant floor heating system in an off grid house using PV powered pumps. Lots of detail on installation of the hydronic heating system.
Paul's House Heating -- Solar Shed	A solar hot water heating system with capacity for future space heating. Collectors are mounted on new storage shed with hot water piped to house. A well done system at a very low cost. Details here...
Radiant Floor Company http://www.radiantcompany.com/details/	Lots of good installation and design detail on this site.
Radiantec -- radiant floor heating systems Installation manuals: http://www.radiantec.com/installation.htm Info Library: http://www.radiantsolar.com/libraryindex.html	Radiantec provides a several useful manuals on the design and installation of radiant floor heating systems, including systems with solar heat sources. The Library provides quite a bit of material on solar heating fundamentals, papers, ...
Manual of Modern Hydronics, IPEX. WarmRite Floor You will probably have to go through a simple registration to download the manual: Ipex register for manual... The manual is in the "Warmrite Floor Radiant Heating" section.	Very good manual on designing and installing hydronic heating systems. Does not include any information on solar as a heat source, so look to the other refs listed in the section for that, but solar works well as a heat source for radiant floor heating. You have to go through a simple registration process before the download.
Radiant Heating Circuit Diagrams http://www.houseneeds.com	Hydronic heating system system diagrams for various heat sources. Can be adapted for solar collectors.
Radiant Floor Retrofit Details Radiant Floor Company The Details Page: http://www.radiantcompany.com/details/ Heat Sources: http://www.radiantcompany.com/heatsources/	The Radiant Floor Company provides some nice detail on several ways to install a radiant floor either in new construction or as a retrofit. Good pictures. Radiant floor heating works well with solar because it can make use of relatively low temperature hot water that solar systems produce more efficiently. I would be more careful about insulation issues than they are in places.
Green From the Ground Up, Jim McKnight, Mark Klein & Laura Lee, Home Power magazine issue 122 How to get articles from Home Power ...	Description of a home that combines an efficient envelope, solar passive heating, solar hot water, masonry heater, and solar electricity to produce a very efficient and green home. The radiant floor heating system can accept heat from solar, the masonry heater, or a gas boiler via a shared heat storage tank.
Infloor Radiant Heat Downloads Infloor Download Page ... Hot Water Floor Heating Design and Installation Manual ... (10 mb pdf)	Infloor's download page includes some useful information for doing solar radiant floors. Including, A fairly detailed 68 page radiant floor design manual.
Insulation Under Radiant Slabs www.blueridgecompany.com/ ... (pdf)	Good article on under slab insulation for radiant heated floors. Compares three types of insulation to no insulation. Rigid foam insulations do well, but the bubble pack style of insulation is worthless.
Solar Air Heating Systems Steve Kornher with Andy Zaugg Download this book	This is a fine book on designing and building solar air collectors and solar air heating systems of many types. Very good on design, very good on construction. Covers both active and passive air collectors. Highly recommended.
Low Cost Solar House Heating Chester Johnson and Joel Chinkes How to get articles from Home Power ...	Home Power Magazine article, issue 59 Very good article on a solar hydronic heating system. Home made solar collectors of a unique design heat water to circulate in a radiant floor heating system. Good construction detail. Very simple system. Very cost effective.
DIY Combination Solar Water and Home Heating System Renew Magazine Article Article (260 pdf)	Article from Renew Magazine, Issue 80 Interesting article on a very large and completely home built solar collector and storage system.
Solar Hot Air System Design, Chuck Marken, Home Power Magazine issue 98, and 99 www.solarminnesota.org/heatbuilding/hpsolarhotair1.pdf www.solarminnesota.org/heatbuilding/hpsolarhotair2.pdf Made available by Solar Minnesota: http://www.solarminnesota.org/ Note: I am unable to find www.SolarMinnesota.org anymore -- if you know where they have gone to, please let me know. Or, try: How to get articles from Home Power ...	A good two part Home Power article on designing and installing solar heating air collectors. Solar air collectors offer a simple way to get free solar heat -- less complex and easier to build and install than solar water collectors.
60 sqft Active Wall Collector Alain in France	This is a nice design for a wall mounted, 60 sqft, fan forced solar air collector.
Wayne's Solar Air Collector http://www.atlanticenergy.ca	A new idea in solar air collectors. Their website currently shows enough pictures to get a good idea how to build it, and promises more information soon. A little more info here.
Glen and Ronny's Solar Heater Project http://h1.ripway.com/glensolar/GlensSolarHeater.htm	Homemade solar air collector using one continuous length of aluminum flex duct folded into a serpentine pattern. A nice simple design. Good pictures and details.
Beer Can Solar Air Heating Collector http://napenergia.freeweb.hu/gyak/szp/sztgyi.htm	This is a nicely done and well documented version of the alum beer can collector design -- similar to the CanSolar commercial collectors. The description is not in English, but the pictures are very good. A pretty good video on the CanSolar collector with some construction detail ...
Building an inexpensive solar heating panel www.mobilehomerepair.com/article17solar.htm	Article from Mobile Home Repairs on building a wall mounted solar air collector with PV driven fan circulation. Very complete How-To instructions.
Greg's Solar Air Collector Full Details ...	This is an easy and inexpensive to build solar air collector that can be built right onto a south wall. It uses a small fan to circulate air through the collector. Cost was about $2 per sqft.
Ganged Forced Air Solar Collectors Pictures and Description ...	Nicely done set of home built solar air collectors with a well thought out way to join collectors.
Solar Hot Air System Design Chuck Marken How to get articles from Home Power ...	Home Power magazine article, issue 98 Overview of solar air collector features, applications and pro/con. Limited system design and sizing info.
Daycreek.com Solar Heating System http://daycreek.com/dc/html/house_specs.htm The www.Daycreek.com main page provides access to quite a bit of interesting solar material.	This is an interesting active solar heating system that uses 400 sqft of solar water collectors to circulate solar heated fluid through a 100 ton sand bed below the house floor. A fairly detailed description of the system is provided.
Mother’s Mobile Home Mini-Manual www.motherearthnews.com	Mother Earth News Article, Issue 95 Sept/Oct 1985 Fairly detailed plans for a solar space heater intended for mobile homes (but probably adaptable to many situations). Good construction diagrams.
This Old Trailer Terry Ziegler How to get articles from Home Power ...	Home Power Magazine article, issue 64 Very good article on adding solar space heating, water heating, a wind generator, and energy conservation features to a trailer. The solar air collector system is somewhat unique and well thought out.
28 Years of Tinkering Steen Hansen Hviid How to get articles from Home Power ...	Homepower Magazine article, issue 56 A report on a 70’s style active solar air collector system for a house that uses rock bin storage. Some information on the design and construction of the system, and 30 years of experience living with the system, which is still doing well. Also, some information on a PV and wind systems that were added later.
Experiments With Solar Air Collectors Ralf Seip How to get articles from Home Power ...	Home Power Magazine article, issue 72 Good detailed article on building a simple solar air collector. Lots of data on construction and performance.
IPEX Radiant Floor Heating http://www.ipexinc.com	The IPEX "technical library" contains some excellent documents for the design and installation of radiant floors. IPEX is a supplier of radiant floor components.
Wall Mounted Air Collector Bill Kreamer Sol-Air Company Download Plan pdf	An easy to build, wall mounted solar air collector with forced air circulation.
Large Active Air Collector Fitch Consulting www.s101470521.onlinehome.us/12001.html	Quite a bit of detail on a solar space heating system that uses a large active solar air collector, as well as evacuated tube collectors. The system has saved $8500 since since 1994, and provides about 60% of the house energy bill.
Solar Heating -- Three in One David Sweetman How to get articles from Home Power ...	Home Power Magazine article issue 101 Description of a solar thermal heating system in Nevada that provides some space heating, hot water heating, and spa. Limited hands-on information.
Water Collector Plans plan link	A not too detailed set of plans for a flat plate solar collector from Mother Earth news
Hot Water Floor Heating for Barns Design Guide Canada Plan Service Design Guide For Hot Water Floor Heating (pdf)	This guide is intended for the design of hot water floor heating systems for barns, but has design information that may be useful for workshops etc. From the Canada Plan Service: www.cps.gov.on.ca
Double Play -- An Experimental Solar Heating and Cooling System Steve Baer How to get articles from Home Power ... and the Zomeworks site http://www.zomeworks.com Search the Zomeworks site for "Double Play"	Roof Integrated Solar Absorbers Home Power magazine article, issue 102 This innovative system uses unglazed collectors that are integrated with the roof structure and a unique thermal storage system to provide solar thermal heating in the winter and radiation cooling in the summer. Amazing! The pdf report provides detailed performance measurements from the FSEC & NREL. This scheme is perhaps a bit on the bleeding edge, but it seems promising to me, and might be good for the adventurous.
"Black Roof" Solar Attic Heater From "Solar Air Heating Systems", Steve Kornher and Andy Zaugg The Black Roof Collector	This is a very inexpensive system that uses your dark colored roof as a solar collector. The cost is very low, and it can be installed with a weekends work. It might supply about 15% of your heating needs. It is not for all climates. This extracted from the book "Solar Air Heating Systems".
The Thomason Trickle Collector	Dr. Harry Thomason invented the simple solar collector that heats water by trickling it down the channels of a corrugated roof under glazing. This very simple collector is used in a number of residential and commercial building. He also invented an number of other solar heating and cooling concepts. These descriptions of Dr. Thomason's patents and related articles provide quite a bit of design information. (thanks to Nick Pine for providing these)
Geothermal Heating
Geothermal Hot Tubing Michael Hackleman How to get articles from Home Power ...	Home Power Magazine Article, Issue 109 Article on using a geothermal hot spring as a heating source for hot tub and space heating. The system uses a custom built heat exchanger made from copper pipe coils to transfer heat from the hot spring.
Geo-Heat Center Technical (and not so technical) publications on Geothermal heating and heat pumps. http://geoheat.oit.edu/techpap.htm	The Geo-Heat Center at the Oregon Institute of Technology provides a lot of information on Geothermal heating and on Geothermal Heat Pumps.
Geothermal Heat Pumps
EERE info on Geothermal Heat Pumps www.eere.energy.gov/geothermal/heatpumps.html Heat pumps come in a dazzling array of variations -- here is a place to start: EERE on Geothermal Heat Pumps	The EERE provides some good basic information on both geothermal and air source heat pumps. When you look at heat pump "efficiencies" of 300% and more, please bear in mind that this does not include the inefficiency of the 30% efficient coal fired power plant where the electricity to run the heat pump was probably generated. From the earth's point of view, heat pumps may not be the best pollution solution. Energy conservation coupled with some solar heating may be more cost effective, lower maintenance, and less polluting than a geothermal heat pump.
Heat From The Earth -- A Heat Pump Primer John Lynch How to get articles from Home Power ...	Home Power magazine article, issue 98 A good overview of ground source heat pumps with some limited sizing and design information.
Builder Guide to Geothermal Heat Pumps Bruce Harley Builder's Guide to GeoThermal.pdf	Guide to planning, installing and maintaining ground source heat pumps.
Earth Energy System -- A Buyers Guide Natural Resources Canada http://www.canren.gc.ca	A good 44 page guide on ground source heat pumps from Natural Resources Canada.
Green Building Talk www.greenbuildingtalk.com/Forums/ ...	Provides some useful links on GSHP's that seems to be fairly even handed. Much of the material out there on GSHPs tends to be on the optimistic (sometimes wildly optimistic) side.
Are electrically powered heat pumps good? Gary	Do geothermal heat pumps really reduce greenhouse gases compared to a modern gas furnace? Are there better options?
Measured Performance of Five Residential Geothermal Systems, National Renewable Energy Laboratory www.toolbase.org	This report provides actual measured performance data for 5 geothermal heat pumps installed in residences in Ohio. Covers heating, cooling and water heating performance, including measured COP's. The systems were carefully instrumented -- a lot of useful and interesting data is provided.
Some Vertical Well Geothermal Heat Pump Construction Pictures From www.OurCoolHouse.com	Some pictures on installing the vertical ground loops in wells for a geothermal heat pump system, and some of the equipment room installation.
Thermal Storage -- Tanks, ... Some of the options available for thermal storage
See Also: Homemade heat exchangers, ... Tank suppliers
Commercial Solar Storage Tanks	Commercial tanks for storing heated water. Good life, limited capacity, built in heat exchangers available, pressurized operation supported. Several suppliers. Ordinary hot water tanks with the elements disconnected can also be used.
High Temperature Polypropylene Tanks http://www.usplastic.com http://www.plastictanks.ca/category.php?cat_id=106	High temperature Polypropylene tanks can withstand temperatures up to the 200F to 220F area.
Polyethylene AG tanks http://www.denhartogindustries.com/gusseted-vertical.asp	These polyethylene tanks for water and chemical storage are rotary molded, fairly inexpensive, and readilty availbable. But, they have a limited temperature capability -- from one supplier: "Our tanks are rated to spike at 140 and run a constant temp of 120. If you store the water at 150 degrees it could soften the tank. You might try finding a cross linked tank that can withstand the higher temps."
EPDM Lined Cylindrical Tank with Immersed Tank Heat Exchanger Details ... Two good concepts here: - Easy to build cylindrical tank. - Immersed tank heat exchanger.	This is a very nicely done cylindrical tank design from Alan. The tank is made from sheet metal bent into a cylinder, then insulated and lined with EPDM. The design uses two small immersed tanks as heat exchangers for domestic water heating.
Homemade EPDM lined plywood tanks Full Details... Gary	Plywood tanks lined with an EPDM membrane are good to about 180F, and are reported to last 10 to 20 years or even longer before liner replacement is needed. The tank frame can be made from lumber and plywood, but the loads are high for even not so large tanks, so be careful. This is the tank I use in my "Solar Shed" house heating system Full details on design and construction.
Eric's Thermal Storage Tank	A REALLY simple thermal storage tank scheme. Dig a hole, line with insulation, and add a waterproof liner. Details...
1000 liter Homemade Thermal Storage Tank http://users.telenet.be/hagim/zonne_energie/hot%20water%20storage.htm	A nice DIY thermal storage tank from Kris's solar energy webstie. Aluminum frame, plywood sites, and custom made liner. And 16 heat exchanger coils!!
STSS EPDM Lined Tanks STSS web site: http://www.stsscoinc.com Heat Storage Tanks www.stsscoinc.com/Products_SolarAndDHW.ASPX	These heat storage tanks are made by STSS Co, Inc. (Sven Tjernagel Solar Systems) stsscoinc@comcast.net "Our tanks are actually fully manufactured then placed in a crate 19 inches wide for shipment. Our customers receive a complete tank, and there is no need for them to do any assembly. Tanks can be uncrated and ready for water in 30 minutes."
EZ-Tanks http://www.ez-tanks.com/	These tanks are intended to be used as light weight septic tanks, but might also work for heat storage tanks. Said to be good for service temperatures up to 200F. Can be used free standing. Flat pack for shipping. Sizes range from 500 to 2000 gallon. About $1200 for the 1000 gallon tank.
Royal Building System PVC - Concrete tanks www.praquasupplies.com/pdf/NB/2004/N&Bjune04.pdf	An interesting tank building technique for medium to large tanks that uses PVC forms for concrete tank. Insulation can be integrated within the forms. This company uses the same type of forms for a form of ICF buildings.
Plans for Concrete Tanks -- Canada Plan Service http://www.cps.gov.on.ca/english/frameindex.htm	These are plans for various types of concrete tanks from the Canada Plan Service. The tanks designs are intended for manure storage, but I don't see why they would not work for thermal storage water tanks. Several sizes of circular, rectangular, on surface, buried, ... The plans are detailed and appear to be well thought out. When working with tons and tons and tons of water its nice to have well engineered plans.
Ferro Cement Tanks http://ferrocement.com/tankBook/indici.en.html	Quite a detailed free online book on how to construct a ferro cement water tank. Plans are included for building both cylindrical and rectangular tanks.
Build a 6500 gallon Concrete Water Tank for $1500, Dorothy Ainsworth, Backwoods Home Magazine www.backwoodshome.com/articles2/ainsworth101.html	Pretty detailed article from Backwoods Home Magazine on building a large concrete water tank to store water for home and irrigation. Lots of work, but it has held up for 23 years and counting. Could probably also be used as a heat storage tank in solar heating systems.
Woodstoves for Tub Heating (or for heating thermal storage tank?) Chofu: supplier (one of many): http://www.thesolar.biz/Chofu.htm Mother Earth News article: http://www.motherearthnews.com pdf describing the Chofu www.revolutionearth.com/download/ChofuDataSheet.pdf Snorkel and Scuba Underwater Woodstoves: http://snorkel.com	Chofu: This is a simple, wood fired heater for soaking tubs. It uses a simple thermosyphon system to circulate heated water (no pumps, no electricity). The full stainless steel case is a water jacket for efficient heat transfer. Snorkel & Scuba: These wood stoves for heating tubs actually live in the tub water, so heat transfer is directly from the stove walls to the water. It seems like this might be a simple, and greenhouse gas friendly way to add heat to a solar heat storage tank when there is not enough sun?
STSS Pipe Coil Heat Exchangers www.stsscoinc.com/Products_SolarAndDHW.aspx	Copper coil heat exchangers. These heat exchangers are immersed in a heat storage tank. Similar to what can be constructed at home. Some performance on these heat exchangers here: ww.stsscoinc.com/Products_HeatExchangerCoil.aspx this is the only published data I have seen on this style of heat exchanger -- if you find more, please let me know ...
Reflectors
Reflector/Shades, Steve Baer, Zomeworks Corporation http://zomeworks.com ... (pdf)	A good paper by Steve Baer reviewing the use of seasonally moveable reflectors to increase solar heat gain in the winter, and reduce unwanted heat gain in the summer. A nice mix of solar physics and practical how-to that Steve has gained in the building of many of these types of reflector systems over the years.
Solar Space Heating Components
Solar Air Heating Systems Steve Kornher with Andy Zaugg Excerpts from this book	This is a fine book on designing and building solar air collectors and solar air heating systems of many types. Lots of information on components for solar air heating systems. The book is out of print, but available at Amazon.com used books for less than $10 -- highly recommended. The link provides extensive excerpts from the book courtesy of Steve and Andy -- Thanks!!
Passive Backdraft Damper www.sunnyjohn.com	Detailed set of photos describe how to build a high capacity passive backdraft damper.

Note: there a quite a few references to Home Power Magazine articles -- to find these, go to the www.homepower.com site, and check their downloads area to see if its in the free downloads offerings. If not, search the "Archives" tab using the issue number, and order that issue for download.