Solar Heating Projects You’ll Love

10 Solar Heating Projects You’ll Love

Heating your home can cost a fortune if you live in a region with very cold winters. Learning how to heat your own house for free in the winter can save you hundreds of dollars each month. If you want to become more self-reliant, trying a few solar heating projects can help you on your journey!

The cool thing about these projects is that you can scale up and down to make them fit your needs. Some families need more or less hot water, so you would adjust the piping. You can adjust the size of the projects, whether you want to make them larger or smaller, to add more benefits to your home.

10 Solar Heating Projects You’ll Love

Are you ready? Here are 10 solar heating projects that will keep you warm and cozy this winter.

• Window Mounted Solar Hot Air Furnace

Lowering your winter heating bill should be your first goal when it comes to solar heating projects. A window mounted solar hot air furnace creates heat through the power of the sun. You don’t need any electricity, forced air, or fans at all.

You can find a tutorial here for this project. You do need some carpentry skills to complete this successfully.

• Solar Thermal System for Winter Space Heating

This plan creates a hydronic solar thermal system that uses a variety of flat panel solar thermal collectors that will heat up the water inside as the sun shines down on the collectors. After the water is heated, it circulates through pex radiant in-floor heating loops under your floor.

This awesome system, which you can see the plans for here, can create 3000 to 4500 watts of free heat during the times that the sun is shining!

• Easy Solar Heater

Are you nervous about your first solar heating project? Try creating an easy, DIY solar heater. On average, it’ll take you two days to put this together plus another day to install, but the cost is under $100. You can’t beat that!

With the proper construction, the inside of the solar heater can reach temperatures as high as 160 degrees Fahrenheit on a 50-degree day. Then, a fan blows that hot air into your home. While the fan does require electricity, it uses fewer watts than a light bulb.

• Solar Window Inserts

Sometimes, you want to try a project without spending a small fortune. If that’s you, try these plans out to make window inserts! The idea behind these inserts is that they go right into your existing window casings to help with heating.  

These inserts can be sized to fit right into your window. They won’t block light or the view. You’ll use aluminized mylar, which is what they use to make emergency blankets, to create the inserts. You can still see through it because it doesn’t block light, but it reflects heat!

• Solar Window Box

Everyone knows what the window AC units look like. Well, these solar window boxes look very similar, but the idea is the opposite. These help to heat your house rather than cool it down.

This plan uses solar fans to move the air out of the solar window box to heat up your room. It’s great for those who are totally off-grid because no electricity is necessary to make the fans work. You attach it to a window, you can shut the window to keep the heat in the unit. Doing so also creates an awesome off-the-grid solar cooker.

• Solar Thermal Water Heater

Running a water heater costs you money, and creating a solar thermal water heater heats the water up for free, aside from the costs of the materials. Some designs even use up reclaimed materials and salvaged materials to make the project even cheaper. That’s awesome – saving more money rocks.

• Solar Hot Air Collector

Sometimes, you just need a bit of creativity to make something useful out of nothing. This awesome plan creates a solar hot air collector out our old light fixtures – seriously! You can find free, used light fixtures almost anywhere. You could buy new but ask around because people might have some laying around.

With this kick-butt plan, you get free heat with no fuel necessary.

• Soda Can Solar Heater

Necessity is the mother of all inventions, right? Sometimes, it’s necessary to build our own, and this soda can solar heater is a genius idea. It won’t heat all of your houses, but it should keep a greenhouse, garage, or other small areas warm. Using one of these heaters will lower the heating bill just a bit.

You’re going to need to drink a lot of soda (or beer) to make this project happen. This solar heater takes in air at the bottom and brings it to the top. The people who have tried it said it makes around a 15-degree difference in heat.

• DIY Portable Solar Water Heater

Do you like to go on the road or go camping often? Having a portable solar water heater gives you the creature comfort of hot water no matter where you are. The plans for this DIY portable solar water heater allow you to make one for less than $20. That’s impressive. If you like to hit the road often, this project is for you.

• Solar Furnace

This project is kind of a big deal. A furnace is a big project! This isn’t an actual furnace, but when created correctly, it can heat a good portion of your house. It will help to reduce the heating costs in your most commonly used rooms in your home. Expect to pay only around $50 to create this, so the potential for savings is HUGE! Give the solar furnace a try.