Designing (& Testing) A Solar Regenerated Desiccant Air Conditioner for our Passively Heated Solar Home, by Henry Gurr. This is the fourth of a series of nine photos. Please see the first in this series (pix 16/76) for full explanation.

Shown here is a close up view of the bottom support of the inclined collector, showing how the bathroom scales is placed, to receive the weight of the whole collector system. This is how I determined how much weight of water the wood shavings would gain, or lose, weight of humidity (water).

Please note magnifying glass in top center of photo.


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Designing (& Testing) A Solar Regenerated Desiccant Air Conditioner for our Passively Heated Solar Home, by Henry Gurr. This is the fifth of a series of nine photos. Please see the first in this series (pix 16/76) for full explanation.

Shown here is an even closer view of the bathroom scales supporting the weight of the inclined collector. This view is showing how I would read the numbers on bathroom scales, through the magnifying glass in center of photo.

This is how I determined how much weight of water the wood shavings would gain, or lose, weight of humidity (water).



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Designing (& Testing) A Solar Regenerated Desiccant Air Conditioner for our Passively Heated Solar Home, by Henry Gurr. This is the sixth of a series of nine photos. Please see the first in this series (pix 16/76) for full explanation.

This photo shows the solar collector (4’ wide X 24” long) positioned on our sun heated roof. The collector is hard to discern: But look closely, it is the deep groove part (covered with translucent plastic polyethylene sheet), that is raised up ~6’ from the rest of the deep groove roof, seen on both sides of the collector.

NOTE: The collector and the roof itself, are made of the same deep groove galvanized sheet steel roofing sections, a close up of which you see in bottom center of the photo.

You see a 4” dia white plastic pipe, angling down from the left side of the collector. This conducts sunny day hot air from the solar collector, into the 4’ x 5’ x 6.5’ plywood box, you see at upper left. This hot air flows through ~250 lb of wood sawdust in the box. The sawdust is the desiccant. The box is raised up ~20” from the ground, so an old air conditioner centrifugal blower, can be located, under the box. The blower has sufficient pressure to circulate air from the atmosphere, into (and through) the collector, through the pipe, through the sawdust, and exhaust back to the atmosphere. There are two valves, each two way, to switch air flow between night operation, and day operation. (One of these two-way valves is seen in subsequent photos.)

At night, additional 4" pipes bring air from the house, and circulate it into the blower, thru the desiccant to be dried. This same old air conditioner centrifugal blower, (now valved differently), has sufficient pressure to circulate air from the lower level of our house, into (and through) the sawdust, and thin return (the now dried air) back into the lower level of our house. Then the air moves (from and back into) our house by underground 12” culvert pipe, the entrance of which is under the center of the box: This provides for close pipe connection, and the box keeps rain out of the culvert pipe. The next three photos show more about how the air pipes & valves are connected, and how the weight of the box is supported.


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Designing (& Testing) A Solar Regenerated Desiccant Air Conditioner for our Passively Heated Solar Home, by Henry Gurr. This is the seventh of a series of nine photos. Please see the first in this series (pix 16/76) for full explanation.

To make this photo, I just stepped back about 12’ from the position from which I took the previous photo. NOTE: Bold font shows added info from caption of previous photo.

Again you see the 4” dia white plastic pipe, angling down from the solar collector. This conducts sunny day hot air from the roof, into the 4’ x 5’ x 6.5’ plywood box, you now fully see at center. This hot air flows through ~250 lb of wood sawdust in this box. The sawdust is the desiccant. The box is raised up ~20”, so an old air conditioner centrifugal blower, can be located, under the box. The blower has sufficient pressure to circulate air through the pipes, sawdust, house, and back. There are two valves, each two way, to switch air flow between night operation and day operation. One of these valves is within the 4” dia white plastic “Tee”, seen at upper left of the photo. The valve is achieved, merely with an up and down sliding (gasket edged) disk, within the “Tee”. To see how it works, you will have to make some sketches. At night, additional pipes bring air from the house, and circulate it thru the desiccant to be dried. Then the air moves into the house by underground 12” culvert pipe, the entrance of which is under the center of the box: This provides for close pipe connection, and keeps rain out of the culvert pipe. The next two photos show more about how the air pipes & valves are connected and how the weight of the box is supported.

Although it is hard to tell it, the box end nearest you is ~6” lower than the far end, thus providing slope for rain run-off the corrugated galvanized sheet steel roofing sections, laid on the top of the box.

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Designing (& Testing) A Solar Regenerated Desiccant Air Conditioner for our Passively Heated Solar Home, by Henry Gurr. This is the eighth of a series of ten photos. Please see the first in this series (pix 16/76) for full explanation.

To make this photo, I moved closer to the bathroom scales, so you can see that it receives only the weight of the END of the 2” x 10” plank, which in turn receives only the weight of just the near end of the box, via the concrete block. Hence the bathroom measures only one quarter of the weight of the box. This was done so the box, weighing over 460 lb total, would not over load the bathroom scales!!!

NOTE: Bold font shows added info from caption of previous photo.

Note the magnifying glass just above the bathroom scales.


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Designing (& Testing) A Solar Regenerated Desiccant Air Conditioner for our Passively Heated Solar Home, by Henry Gurr. This is the nineth of a series of nine photos. Please see the first in this series (pix 16/76) for full explanation.

Here you see, through the magnifying glass, that the bathroom scales reading 220 lb, which can be read, to the neaest one tenth of a lb. To achieve this takes patience and use of my "high - low" reading technique: Finger press down, let off and take reading. Then finger lift up and take reading, and then take the average: This is a way to get the best result, despite friction. NOTE: Bold font shows added info from caption of previous photo.



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This photo, and the next ten photos, are "A Celebration Of Fall Color & Fall Leaves"!!

The last of these, shows photos of our Solar Home.


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This photo, and the next nine photos, are "A Celebration Of Fall Color & Fall Leaves"!!

The last of these, shows photos of our Solar Home.


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This photo, and the next eight photos, are "A Celebration Of Fall Color & Fall Leaves"!!

The last of these, shows photos of our Solar Home.


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