Pete's Solarventi - Canberra

Pete’s SolarVenti.
I am delighted to report that my SV30 (solar-powered air
heater) is working fine. The installation wasn’t as daunting
as I had feared, apart from cutting the 130mm hole
in the double brick wall, and winching the unit up to the
second story level to give it the best “sky”
It regularly pumps in 40’c air at around 15’c ambient
at midday. With Dale’s help and his thermocrons, I have
logged its performance over the first few weeks, and will
have the data for the next newsletter.
There are a couple of problems that I have with my
set up – in a two-story, semi-open-plan townhouse with
relatively low-mass structure. The first is that the warm
air readily travels across the lounge room and up the
spiral staircase – so I have a ceiling fan above the stairs
to encourage the warmth back down. The second problem
is a major problem in that the mature trees on the adjoining
public open space shield it from the sun after about
12.45pm in mid winter. It thus only works for about 3
hours in the morning.
It seems to raise the air temperature in the lounge
room by about 2 degrees overall, in the time that it does
operate. After SHD in September, I will probably move it
to the roof top to double its sun exposure.
Despite these concerns, I am delighted with the unit.
It is very well made, and certainly works ‘as advertised’.
It’s so simple, I wonder why more people don’t think
about solar air heating. Cheers, Pete
Contact  (SolarVenti).