Human beings love beer, and we love the sun, and increasingly many of us would like to be around to enjoy both well into the future. With that in mind I present the DIY Beer Can Solar Heater. An awesome convergence of recycling, reusing, DIY solar technology, and well…beer. What more could you possibly want?

Seriously check out this great site, they have all the instructions, here is a taste.

The goals of the project were twofold:

Design a passive solar unit which could provide some useful measure of auxiliary heat.

Design something relatively simple and affordable to construct.

The solar heater essentially consists of two main parts – the solar heater box and the solar heater collection unit (found inside the solar heater box.) The solar heater box acts as a frame to hold the entire device together and to contain heat. It is basically a rectangular box consisting of wood sides, a wood back, and a glass top – very minimal construction needed here. The solar heater collection unit is a series of aluminum cans (in this case a few soda cans and plenty of Milwaukee’s Best Light beer cans), aligned in rows/columns and secured in place. In addition to the two things mentioned above, you also need some sunshine. This venture doesn’t work in the dark.

Anyhow, our project began at the transfer station metal pile (where all quality home improvement projects start.) Here we found a single double paned glass slider door. The door was obviously once part of a normal two-door slider, the rubber trim/gaskets were torn but the frame and glass were in great shape. This particular door was quite heavy and measured 36″ x 80″. Despite its weight and lack of gaskets, it was the perfect unit to create our solar heater box – mainly because it was free.