Make a Solar Water Heater for Under $5
by Matthew Sparkes, London, UK on 08.15.07
Instructables user, TheNaib, has written a tutorial on how to create a solar thermal water heater for under five dollars. It will involve a fair amount of DIY, but nothing too complicated. It's designed as a fun project, but with some tweaking it could see real applications, "Its a great way to learn about using the renewable energy of the sun to produce useful effects, in this case hot water. You can use these instructions to build a device that will actually heat enough water to use in the home, but it would require modifications."
Not only is it creating hot water using completely renewable energy, but it is also created from recycled scrap parts like the coolant grill from a refrigerator. If you do try this out, be warned that it can really heat up water quickly, and to quite an impressive temperature, "A word of warning, this panel works VERY WELL. We tested it on a very sunny day and within seconds the water coming out of the panel was hot enough TO SCALD. I burned my fingers. This very hot water is only formed when the water inside the panel is allowed to sit for about a minute without moving. If the water is moving (do to the gravity siphon) the water exiting the return pipe is about 110 degrees, and while hot, will not burn you."
If you are thinking of trying this out then read the comments on the tutorial page, because lots of users have suggested ways to improve the design. Get in touch and let us know how you get on. ::Instructables
This is amazing. Great use of recycled parts for a truly practical project as well as environmentally friendly. Also, get a nice hot shower out of it :)
This looks a great idea, I might actually give it a go, although my DIY skills are somewhat lacking!
Of course if you rip that grill off the back of a refrigerator then you release all the refrigerent which harms the environment more.
kind of useless unless you use an insulated storage container and a recirculating pump. otherwise you ARE destined to scald yourself.
Adam, if you properly dispose of the Freon or Puron, then this isn't a problem.
Nice post, I'll definitely be giving it a go.
PS You left the P out of Complicated. Irony? :)
Why do you have reflective material on the back of the unit? It seems like it would make the most sense to have black metal. This would absorb more heat and feed it into the piping.
That "Grill" is the condenser coil from a refrigerator, the old ones are copper and the newer ones are aluminum so you won't get one for five dollars. if you want to build this on the cheap then use the old PVC (black) irrigation pipe, lay it out flat and get lots of very hot water.
i use the water heater to heat a large amount of water so i can make a giant outdoor bowl of oat meal! yyuumm
There are flaws in your design. There is a huge waste of the light energy from using that specific refrigerator grill. The portion of the grill which consists of wires strung perpendicularly to the water tubing would not collect as much light energy as a flat black metal panel would. Im sure with this adaptation you would be making boiling water easily if your data is correct.
remember, the key to our energy problems is Efficiency!!!
Wow! Cheap water heater that even helps the Earth? I always wanted to make something like that. Thanks for this article. I will go find the parts to create my own solar thermal water heater for under five dollars!
Buy a 50 gal. drum, paint it black,fill it with water, leave it in the sun - presto, hot water.