Hi All, thanks for the comments. I am looking at shower door panels at Home Depot, etc. (so they will all match) they are pricy. Probably $300 for 4 panels to cover 9 of the front wall 10 ft. Will try a salvage building material store first to see if there is anything useable there. Hope so, so I can afford the pricy wood I will need for the inside (seating mostly). To answer one of the questions: The clear glass is the collection surface and the masonry back and side walls are the storage features. A paver floor should hold some heat also. I am thinking I might need blinds or curtains on the inside to control heat to some degree and could well use them for privacy but the interior will be pretty small so billowing curtains or clunky blinds might be a turn off.
I am thinking about supplemental heat from a passive thermosiphon system mounted directly beside the sauna. There is a convenient and sunny spot there. Does anyone know if such a system can heat-store-circulate hot water beyond the traditional collection-store unit. If able I would like to circulate (passively/no pumps) the water from the storage tank, through the sauna which is lower than either the solar collection box or storage tank, So don't quite know if that is an impossibility or not. Not sure if the passive convection/circulation can overcome a 6ft drop (to the sauna floor) and return to the collection box. If necessary I could run any piping up high and minimize any height differentials. Any insights would be warmly appreciated.
