I'm curious how effective it would be to change the color of my heat exchanger so its white in summer to reflect sun - and black in winter to absorb it.
What about reflecting more light to hit a black heat exchanger in winter? or putting black metal sheets between it and the house that would absorb and radiate heat near the heat exchanger?
Would all of this add up to such a small difference that its not worth the effort?
I've heard before about trying to keep your heat exchanger in the shade in summer by planting deciduous trees - so it will be shaded in summer and get sun in winter.
What about other passive solar around the heat exchanger? glass tubes full of some kind of dark oil? I think some houses have these inside to aid in heat absorption during the day and slow emission over night?
I agree
No opinion
I disagree![[SPAM]](http://www.whynot.net/images/flagasspam.png)
Flag as spam
Add your comment
What kind of heat exchanger do you have? Is it a heat pump? I would think that mirrors would help some in the winter, but I don't know how practical they would be. It would depend on the layout of the system. The mirrors would only be effective when they reflected the light in the right direction, so they would need to move to track the sun or they will only work for an hour or two a day. You could experiment with this and see what you get. Interesting idea.