Windows – How best to attach? (idea needed for my solar experiment)?

Question

I am doing an experiment with solar heating. I am going to build a wall 16’ long and about 8’ high that sticks out about 6” from a south facing wall but remains underneath the fascia and soffit. Yesterday I installed several PVC pipes extending vertically from the ground up to the soffit and also hung a plastic drop cloth against the house that was painted flat black. I purchased about 35 triple pained windows from a salvage yard that have no frame – in other words they are perfectly flat and most measure about 30” x 30” x 7/8” of an inch. I would like to quickly assemble and disassemble the wall of windows each winter season. The windows will be caulked where they join to keep them airtight. I will have three rows of windows with a horizontal piece of material to add rigidity; the horizontal strips would ideally be 7/8” thick (the same thickness of the windows) and will be cut to a size that extends the three rows of 30” windows to the height of the soffit, 96”.

I can not find any ‘H’ shaped clips at my local hardware store that accept a 7/8” material. The closest (and frustrating) thing I found was a ‘H’ shaped clip for holding 5/8” plywood roofing together; that would have been perfect, except I need 7/8”. I would gladly purchase a stick of 7/8” ‘H’ shaped channel, and cut it into little pieces.

My main question is: what can I use for ‘H’ shaped clips to hold these 7/8” thick windows in place?

Btw, the horizontal material that I purchased actually measures about 1” thick, it is 1/8” thicker than the windows; I’d prefer this material be 16’ long for rigidity. I can still return the 1” lumber. 7/8” material of some sort might actually be better, but because I am on a tight budget I will probable stick with this material unless someone suggests something better. Again the main problem is the ‘H’ clips or finding an easy and inexpensive way to attach the windows to the lumber.

Answer 1

For the H-shaped clips you could use 2 pieces of aluminum channel riveted together back to back. Get the channel slightly wider than the glass so as to insert a piece of rubber between the glass and the aluminum channel.

Answer 2

I realize It`s a bit late now, but a better idea for the glass may have been discarded sliding glass door panels. They`re a bit bulkier, but installation and removal would be a snap. Especially if you could find a good head and threshold.