Those of you who’ve been contemplating a do-it-yourself solar heating project may just be unsure on where to start, or just can’t find a good set of instructions, or maybe you’re intimidated by a price tag in the hundreds of dollars, even for a DIY project. Well, two ingenious gentlemen from Springfield, Missouri just may be your solar-knights in shining armor. As detailed in Mother Earth News, Don R. and George Waterman managed to construct a solar heating system for their 30′ x 40′ shop for a measly thirty dollars. That’s right, thirty dollars.

With just some plastic sheeting, salvaged lumber, and scrap parts from an old gas furnace, the two men built the system in just a few weeks. Using the south-facing wall of the shop, and battling temperatures that often fall to near-zero degrees, their simply-designed heating system can provide nearly all the heat necessary to work comfortably in the shop, even on the coldest of days.

They detail the building process step-by-step and really do a great job of exposing the feasibility of the project. They kept the project inexpensive and effective through four “secrets:”

1. Use the south-facing side of the shop for the collector.
2. Use cheap plastic film instead of glass or plexi-glass as glazing.
3. Do not use any heat storage system.
4. Salvage as much product as possible.

For a detailed description of the work and to learn how they succeeded at following their four secret rules, check out the full article at Mother Earth News.