DIY Solar Thermal Panel
by Justin Thomas, Virginia 
on 06.23.06
Can you build your own solar thermal panel for under $5? The guys at the The Sietch group say you can. They gives you step-by-step on how to build one yourself. You'll need the back grill of a fridge, a floor mat, some window glass, tape, tubing, and foil. Put it all together and you’ve got a pretty efficient water heater — over 110 degrees on sunny days. They also show you how to make a thermo siphon. Great for heating a pool. :: Via Groovy Green
Follow @TreeHugger on Twitter & get our headlines with @TH_rss!
Thirsty for more? Check out these related articles:
- How to Use a Solar Oven: Beans and Rice Recipe
- 7 Great Weekend Solar Power Projects
- 5 Reuses for Altoid Tins
- How to Use a Solar Cooker: What Works and What Doesn't
- Cut Your Summer Grilling Costs in Half With These Tips
- Build a Worm-A-Rator to Keep Your Worm Composters Cool and Productive
I made my own solar panel way back in 5th grade. It's pretty easy.
Thanks for highlighting our project, We built this for less than five dollars by getting all of the components from the dump.
People throw so much good stuff away its amazing(and sad). You can actually get water that is much hotter than 110 out of this device as it laid out in the project instructions.
I love treehugger and was surprised to see something we did listed here :) Thanks.
ps. check out the other projects in the project section for other cool ideas that you can make yourself.
I've used a SunShower while camping and I can attest that it works very well. Sometimes the water even gets too hot!
The guy would of done better with a black background instead of reflecting it back to the sky.
if you read his article, it specifically says the foil is to reflect it back so the absorber can absorb it from the back too. he says you DO NOT want your background to be hot (their first round was).
can anyone say conclusively one way or another which is better? this group says they tested both and foil worked better. they say that the reflection causes the heat to bounce back, but it still never leaves through the glass (thus it isn't going "back to the sky")
If the foil was touching the coil, which it is not, then you would want it to be black. In this case the blackness causes more heat to be absorbed which would then be transferred by conduction to the coil. As the foil in this case is set back from the coil then it makes sense for it to be reflective. This does make it far less efficient than a black absorber which is transferring heat to the coil ( as all commercial flat-plate collectors do )
/ Colm