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
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")