Uses For Old Glass Panes
Earth Day Garden Projects
So last year my buddy from work was remodeling his house and redoing all the windows. He asked me what he should do with the old glass panes and I told him I'd take them off his hands. Now I have 13 old window panes stacked up in my backyard without any projects for them to go into. This is the year for me to try some things.
I'll make a list of projects and let you vote for which project gets priority. We'll document the projects in future lenses.
(I'll put a photo here of the old glass panes as soon as I can get the snow off them. )
My Projects - My Ideas
... fill my days with wonder.
The first thing I plan to do is lay out the old glass panes over my raised garden beds to solar sterilize the beds. I left them to summer fallow last year and all they grew well were grass and weeds so I'm going to cook the soil for the first while and start fresh this year.
I have a stack of old glass panes all with a simple aluminum frame. They are single pane glass that is not coated or treated to reflect heat so I rescued them with the thought of making a solar heater of some sort to melt snow off my deck or heat a tub for relaxing this summer.
Who knows what I'll make from them. This will be a way to challenge both my creative skills making how-to lenses as well as my technical construction skills at actually making things. So far I've proven to be an armchair inventor.
New Amazon
My Solar Heat Module
Basically a solar heater is an insulated box that channels the warm air over a black painted surface so it heats up.
I found plans like this all over the net I'll be making my box out of recycled plywood plywood, recycle tin from an old shed and recycled glass panes. The only thing I'll have to buy is some rigid insulation.
I also plan to put a solar powered circulation fan on the unit as well. We'll see if it will be needed.
Dehydrator Accessory for the Heat Grabber
Glass Topped Cold Frame
I've made raised beds before but the growing season is too short here. Topping the raised beds with glass would extend the growing season and make the project more worth while.
Solar Slow Cooker.
Solar cookers are simple to make and use. I once made one by just taking a cheap Styrofoam cooler and painting the inside black and clamped a sheet of old window glass on the top. I them propped the whole thing up so the glass faced the sun. I put a jar of tea to steep in the sun while I was working doing the lawn I remember. I was impressed on the results.
A Solar cooker is not a quick meal maker for sure but it is a few source of heat and use recipes that work for a slow cooker and they should work out.
I plan to make this cooker much the same way except I'll add reflectors to increase the reflected heat into the cooking chamber..