I've been thinking about this. This would be a great learning project/experiment, especially for nerdy children. It would be a passive system. That is, once completed it would heat by itself by converting solar energy to hot/warm water which would heat the floor/walls of the doghouse.
Goal: to have the solar heated water settle into a tank where the dog lays. Because hot water rises naturally it would be best to have the tank the highest place in the solar water system because it would be the warmest spot in the system. The tank would be covered with something like concrete (you could put a blanket or pad on this).
materials: chicken wire, pex tubing, fiberous cement like vermiculite cement or papercrete (mixture of concrete and paper), a flat rectangular metal tank, a small homemade water solar panel (like 4' x 2'). (You could make the doghouse out of wood, too).
Instead of putting the solar panel on the roof of the doghouse or the side wall I would put it below the doghouse so the hot water would rise to the tank/dog bed. So the dog house would need to be on a deck or hill. I guess you could make the tank the low point in the solar water system, too. This would be more convenient by having the solar water panel the south side of the doghouse's roof.
I would prefer the papercrete instead of wood because it is better insulating and can be poured into forms (it is like oatmeal). The chicken wire would be used like rebar around the walls, floor and roof. Pex tubing would be placed before pouring the papercrete (or vermiculite concrete).
What do you think?
Goal: to have the solar heated water settle into a tank where the dog lays. Because hot water rises naturally it would be best to have the tank the highest place in the solar water system because it would be the warmest spot in the system. The tank would be covered with something like concrete (you could put a blanket or pad on this).
materials: chicken wire, pex tubing, fiberous cement like vermiculite cement or papercrete (mixture of concrete and paper), a flat rectangular metal tank, a small homemade water solar panel (like 4' x 2'). (You could make the doghouse out of wood, too).
Instead of putting the solar panel on the roof of the doghouse or the side wall I would put it below the doghouse so the hot water would rise to the tank/dog bed. So the dog house would need to be on a deck or hill. I guess you could make the tank the low point in the solar water system, too. This would be more convenient by having the solar water panel the south side of the doghouse's roof.
I would prefer the papercrete instead of wood because it is better insulating and can be poured into forms (it is like oatmeal). The chicken wire would be used like rebar around the walls, floor and roof. Pex tubing would be placed before pouring the papercrete (or vermiculite concrete).
What do you think?
