I was wondering if anyone has had any personal experience with Trombe walls, and if so what they might be?   We are considering adding some to a new solar home we are going to be building in New Mexico.

RE:

A Trombe wall is a sun-facing wall built from material that can act as a thermal mass (such as stone, metal, concrete, adobe or water tanks), combined with an air space, insulated glazing and vents to form a large solar thermal collector.
Edward Morse patented the design in 1881 (US Patent 246626), but it was ignored until 1964. In the 1960s the design was popularized following the construction of a passive solar house using the principle in Odeillo, France, by the engineer Felix Trombe and architect Jacques Michel.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trombe_wall

Combo w/SIP would be interesting! Or just become and alcoholic and recycle 41,232 aluminum bear cans into the walls !  Of course meant in pure humor

John

hadn't heard of trombe walls till this post, but quite an interesting application.

Ted,

Where are you building in NM? What material will you be using.

BIll

You can accomplish the same thing depending on your design by using a sunroom or porch with the back mass wall being an interior wall or for instance an interior wall that is sun lit via a celestry. Though these are not as effective as a true trombe, they operate on the same principle.

Bill

I can remember my grandfathers house,garage and outbuildings, having steel 1 quart oil cans laying sideways between the outer and inner walls. My recollection is from the 1960's.Just now talking to my father and this served 3 fold- as insulation(dead air space),bulk (less concrete needed),and ridance of oil cans from the family gas station.

Hi Ted,

I have some experience with Trombe walls in a house I designed, built, and lived in for four years in N.E. Wyoming. I built two walls in the house and both worked extremely well.

One of them was built of 10" concrete blocks filled with masonry sand. This wall was 10 ft. wide and two stories high. It began in the walkout basement level and extended to the ceiling of the main level of the house. There were two fixed windows 5' wide by 6' high, side by side on each level. On any sunny winter day, this wall absorbed heat so that by 8 pm it was 80deg F, making a cozy atmosphere in the living space where it was located.

The other wall was 6" thick, built of the same material as the larger one. This wall was a half-height wall located in the breakfast nook of the house. Because of the lesser thickness, this wall achieved a higher temp(90 F) earlier in the evening, right around supper time, also creating a very nice radiant heat surface.

All my design parameters were a result of info I gleaned from an old but reliable book by Edward Mazria, called the PASSIVE SOLAR ENERGY BOOK. Costs about $15 on Amazon(just checked it) and is an amazing primer for all sorts of passive solar applications, including direct gain, attached greenhouse, indirect gain including Trombe walls, and much more. This book is quite old(1972), but there is a huge amount of data, tables and rules of thumb that really do not change over time. I highly recommend you get this book, and also recommend the use of Trombe walls.

I would be happy to correspond with you if you wish. Email address: djschrall@yahoo.com We could also talk using SKYPE, for example and I could even show you some fotos of the house using that medium. Let me know.

Dave