Overview
I began building my solar heated barn (workshop/garage) in 2012. Much of what I knew at the time was based on a book entitled "Solar Water Heating" by Bob Ramlow. I also used “Modern Hydronic Heating” by John Siegenthaler and a number of other reference books and papers. I calculated that it would be practical to heat my shop with solar energy using an array of eight flat-panel collectors that would heat a liquid solar solution. The solution is circulated through a sand mass under the floor of the shop. This is covered in Ramlow’s book and is referred to as a High Mass System. I heat the sand mass every day that the sun shines and it simply radiates up through the floor to heat the shop. The system has been working for several years now and I think I should share some of the things I learned as I was building it. I began by designing the workshop/garage in 2011. I didn’t know at the time that it would be a barn, that is, it would have a gambrel roof. That was dictated by ...