Elk River, Minn. (Nov. 14, 1994) -- SolarAttic, Inc., a manufacturer of devices that use hot attic air to heat water, space and swimming pools, announced the design of an enhancement to make SolarAttic technology more efficient in collecting solar energy from hot attic air. The enhancement, called a "porous wall duct," is a flexible, perforated tube which is installed all along the underside of an attic's ridge where attic temperatures are the highest. The tube connects at one end to the intake side of a SolarAttic heat exchanger. The heat exchanger's fan pulls hot air through specially-sized holes in the duct to provide a uniform supply of the hottest air directly into the heat exchanger.
The "porous wall duct" takes advantage of the theory that the warmer the air going into the heat exchanger, the more heat energy there is to be extracted. The design was tested initially in the summer of 1994. Preliminary results show that by using the "porous wall duct," air temperatures on the intake side of the heat exchanger were significantly higher than temperatures with uncontrolled air intake.
Ed Palmer, SolarAttic's President and CEO, said, "The porous wall duct is an important addition to our heat-exchange technology. It gives us total control over the solar energy inside attic spaces; it's a big development."
In addition to providing more heat energy, the porous wall duct allows SolarAttic's technology to perform more efficiently in homes that have large attics or attics with unusual shapes or multiple cavities. SolarAttic plans to begin marketing the porous wall duct sometime in 1995, following further testing and product refinements.
University of Minnesota Professor Ephraim M. Sparrow directed the development of the design and initial testing of the porous wall duct through the Small Business Program at the University's Center for Interfacial Engineering, a program which assists small companies in technical research and development.
Based in Elk River, Minn., SolarAttic, Inc. manufactures and markets a growing line of solar energy products that use solar-generated, hot attic air in place of traditional solar collection panels.
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