Solarwall Now Also Available as InSpire

Update, August 2008: The article below was originally published in August 2005. The patented transpired collector, branded as SolarWall®, is no longer legally available under any brand other than SolarWall. According to Conserval Engineering, previous license agreements are no longer in place for the production or sale of the SolarWall air-heating technology.

ATAS International, a large manufacturer of metal wall and roof panels based in Allentown, Pennsylvania, is now selling a solar air heater under the name InSpire™. InSpire is ATAS’s name for Solarwall®, a product that has been available from Conserval Engineering in Toronto, Ontario, and from Conserval Systems in Buffalo, New York, for over a decade (see EBN Vol. 5, No. 1). InSpire is an unglazed, transpired, solar collector that uses perforated sheet metal, usually installed as the exterior wall cladding on the south side of a building, to preheat ventilation air.