Trombe wall idea for pole barn

[weedsportpete]

We have an indoor riding arena (pole barn), that is 60 x 160 with 14 foot walls. The top three feet of wall, along both long sides, are the clear plastic covering that lets light in. it is supposed to be resistant to fading; we have had it for 2 & 1/2 years and it has not faded yet.

Anyway, in the northeast winter it is cold, but when it is sunny, the sun shines in through that plastic covering and hits the opposite indoor wall - I have this idea about putting some kind of dark material on the walls that has enough mass to absorb and hold heat, and give it off during the day and into the night.

Any comments? Will it make a difference in the temperature, enough to notice, or even to be helpful?

I would have to take it down or cover it during the warmer months.

???

 

[Holzster]

What is the wall the light is hitting now made of?

 

[drm]

The dark color will help but what you really need is mass to hold the heat. I lived in a brick load bearing (12" thick brick walls) house with no insulation in the walls (all brick). The plaster on the inside would be hot at night.

A light color wall to bounce the light would probably be the best all around bet.

...Derek

 

[weedsportpete]

You can look at a parallel thread Heath568 pole barn to get an idea of my pole barn - it looks exactly the same - Just the exterior metal wall - the interior color is white. The first 4 feet off the ground has already been enclosed in plywood all around the building, but I could change that if it would help.

I was thinking of the 3/4 inch rubber mats we use on the floor, hanging them up on the walls. Although that would be expensive, it is close to what might work - they are dark and dense.

 

[texbaylea]

You need lots of mass to store any practical amount of solar heat. The cheapest most effective thing you could do is stack black painted, water filled metal drums along the wall opposite the "windows". Black will adsorb heat more readily and reradiate it well also.

Vernon

 

[inveresk]

You haven't said whether your arena is insulated.

There are a couple of principles you need to follow for effective solar design. The first is to make your building as energy efficient as you can so that the amount of solar energy needed to heat it is minimised. Then you can then go about trying to collect and store solar energy but that won't be easy or cheap in a 60 x 160 buliding that wasn't designed that way from the outset.

A trombe wall placed as I understand it on the cold north side of your building is not the best place to locate it. Any solar energy that the wall will pick up needs to get through the clear plastic windows then across 60 feet of indoor arena. In midwinter, when you need the heat the most, it's highly unlikely that you'll get enough incident solar radiation to justify the expense.

 

[EddieWalker]

This sounds like one of those ideas that sounds good when you read or hear about it, but for practical purposes, it's not very practical.

I'd think the size of your barn would make it very dificult to heat to a noticable level usuing the sun in winter.

Another idea I've always kicked around in the back of my head is to do a form of radiant floor heating. If it's freezing outside, than anyflowing water is going to be warmer than the outside temps. If you buried tubing in the dirt floor going back and forth to cover the entire area, then pumped water through it, I'm thinking it would at least warm things up a small amount. If you heated that water, it would even work better.

The flaws in my theory are how much energy does it take to pump the water, the length of the run might be so much that even buried, flowing water might still freeze and what would it cost to install.

To heat the water, either a home water heater, or a solar panel setup like swiming pools use.

Good luck,
Eddie

 

[slowzuki]

I too think if the barn is uninsulated and not very tight you will be hard pressed to feel a difference. You need a lot of sun to heat a building that size if it isn't insulated.

In NY it is possible to design solar heated houses but in the winter they always need backup heat for cloudy days or weeks. No practical way to store enough energy to make it through the cold parts.

 

[PacersDad]

www.farmtek.com should have black water bladders used for this purpose in greenhouses. Pretty much the same idea as an earlier post of black water barrels. Lot of options but i have no idea how much energy you'd actually catch.
HTH.

 

[MikeD74T]

As slowzuki says "I too think if the barn is uninsulated and not very tight you will be hard pressed to feel a difference. You need a lot of sun to heat a building that size if it isn't insulated.

In NY it is possible to design solar heated houses but in the winter they always need backup heat for cloudy days or weeks. No practical way to store enough energy to make it through the cold parts."

Think about the amount of sun you have in the winter & you'll realize that's why it's winter.