solar thermal water heater for less than five doll

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Solar Thermal Water Heater For Less Than Five Dollarsby TheNaib on August 9, 2007

Table of Contents

License: Attribution Non-commercial (by-nc) .........................................................................................

Intro: Solar Thermal Water Heater For Less Than Five Dollars ...........................................................................

step 1: Materials .............................................................................................................

step 2: Collection Of Materials ...................................................................................................

step 3: Collector Prepaired ......................................................................................................

step 4: The Rest Of The Parts ...................................................................................................

step 5: Preparing The Back .....................................................................................................

step 6: Making The Frame ......................................................................................................

step 7: Attaching Collector To Frame ..............................................................................................

step 8: Finshing Touches .......................................................................................................

step 9: Wrapup .............................................................................................................. 1

Related Instructables ........................................................................................................... 1

Advertisements ............................................................................................................... 1

Comments ................................................................................................................... 1

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License: Attribution Non-commercial (by-nc)

Intro: Solar Thermal Water Heater For Less Than Five DollarsThis project will create a DIY solar hot water heater for less than five dollars (if you have access to a garbage dump). It will allow you to see the principles of solar watheating in action, and is highly customizable.

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 will actually heat enough water to use in the home, but it would require modifications.

This device is more useful for camping or as a science experiment and teaching tool. A word of caution it is possible to create very hot water with this technique and yshould be careful not to burn yourself. You can find this and more great DIY projects relating to renewable energy, solar cooking, and sustainable design at The Sietc

By using the sun instead of fossil fuels to heat your water you wil l be preventing dangerous greenhouse gasses from being released into the atmosphere, helping to

prevent global warming.

step 1: MaterialsMaterials needed:

Water2 bucketsDrill (with both drill bits and screw bits)

Some scissorsA saw (a simple hand saw will do)Some woodA pane of glass.The back of a small refrigerator.12 feet of air pump hose used in fish tanksBacking material (we used an old door mat)A box of wood screwsAluminum FoilRole of duct tapeAngle Cutter (or hack saw)

Time:

This project took about 3 hours of constructions time. It took a couple weeks to find all the parts.

step 2: Collection Of MaterialsAfter our first attempt at a home built proof of concept solar thermal panel, we were a bit disappointed with the results. It took about 4 hours before the thing started woand was a bit costly (at over 50 dollars) to make.

I knew it could be done better and cheaper. My first mistake with the first one was purchasing everything new. With ample reusable resources at the local town dump knew it could be done on the cheap.

Another flaw from the first panel was using pond liner as our collection medium. Pond liner is plastic, does not absorb heat as well as other materials (like metal) and iharder to work with as you have to use glue or tape to create an air pocket to hold the water. It leaked the f irst couple of times we used it and took extensive repairs tomake it work.

We solved this problem by using a ready made collector. Something that was already designed to distribute heat, and made of metal.

The last major flaw in our first panel was using plexiglas for the cover. Its hard to work with as it will crack, and using two pieces left a hard to close crack in the middle

We solved this problem by using good old fashion window glass.

Now onto the project. The first thing we did was collect all of the parts.

http://www.thesietch.org/projects/solarthermalpanel/index.htmhttp://www.thesietch.org/http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.5/


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Our local dump has a coolant removal program that has refrigerators and dehumidifiers that they remove old freon from. With this in mind I found the perfect heatcollector. The back of a fridge is basically a heat dispersal system, with a slight modification is can be used to collect large amounts of heat.

Make sure that the freon, or other coolant has been removed, and cut the grill off at the base, near the large coolant holder.

Image Notes1. This is what you want

step 3: Collector PrepairedThis is what it looks like after you have it off the fridge. Note the two tubes, make sure you leave ample leads on the end for attaching the water hoses to later.


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Image Notes1. Leave enough pipe here for later

step 4: The Rest Of The PartsThere was an old couch that had been run over by one of the large dump plows, the inside wood was the perfect size for the frame. I found a pane of glass and an oldrubber door mat that made the perfect backing and front. The glass was a real find, and may be the only part of the panel that may need to be purchased. Make sure y

glass is big enough to fit over your collector and have enough room to attach i t to the frame.


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Image Notes1. Be sure to clean the glass before you use it, dirt blocks the light.

step 5: Preparing The BackThe door mat was HUGE, so I had to cut it in half. Funny thing seems there was a lot of nasty black goo, and a metal sheet in the middle. Who knew. Remove the meplate (or cut it in half as well) and leave the goo.


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step 6: Making The FrameOnce The backing was cut to size, it was time to start building the frame. As you can see I sort of built the frame around the collector, leaving enough backing to hold itogether.

The frame is held on by building a similar frame on the back and driving large wood screws through the front frame, the backing and into the back frame.

I added some foil to the backing. The reason for this is that counter to what you would think, you do not want the backing to warm up. You only want the collector toabsorb heat (it was so nice of the fridge company to paint it black for us). The foil will take any sun that was not absorbed by the collector on the first pass and bounceback over the collector for another try at absorption. The glass cover will help keep the heat inside the panel for further absorption.

Light can pass through glass, but heat has a hard time getting through glass, think greenhouse. If you were going to make your backing out of metal instead of rubber,you would skip the foil and instead attach the collector directly to the metal backing. The reason for this is that the metal back (painted black) would absorb heat andtransfer it to the collector, the rubber mat however is not a very good heat transfer agent. If you use a metal backing consider using insulation on the back of the paneltry and keep as much heat in your collector box as possible.

Notice how duct tape was used on the inside to seal all cracks, you could use caulk but I didn't have any so I used the cheapest option. It worked well, and held the foplace.


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Image Notes1. All projects should be done barefoot :)


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step 7: Attaching Collector To FrameNext we cut some notches for the entry and return ports to the collector. Note again the use of duct tape to seal cracks.

Image Notes1. You could close this hole up with putty for a more efficient panel.

step 8: Finshing TouchesI got some air pump hose from the local fish store and attached them to the end of the entry and return ports.

The duct tape was applied to make sure it was a tight fit, it was later removed as it was not needed.

Next we attached the collector to the backing, using the mounting brackets that came on the fridge and some duct tape. If you wanted you could use some screws andwood, but I found the tape and the natural tension of the construction to be enough to hold it in place.

Lastly we attach the glass to the top. This serves to trap all the infrared radiation from the sun inside our panel where our collector will absorb it. Again l ight can passthrough glass, but heat can not easily escape

As you can see simple duct tape is enough to hold it on. I would recommend using some sort of mounting bracket however as after a couple days in the sun the tapestarted to droop allowing the glass to slide off. A few screws would solve this, but I am cheap so I just put new tape on.

Set your panel up at an angle so that it catches the most sun.


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step 9: WrapupHere is the gross part, put one end of the hose into your bucket of cold water, and make sure i t is at the bottom of the bucket, next grab the return hose and start suckThat's right, unfortunately you have to prime the panel by getting some water into it. This can be done without getting water in your mouth, but inevitably I sucked just alittle too hard and ended up with a mouth full of nasty water. I would recommend having a friend do this part. :)

Set your cold water bucket (source) up higher than your warm water bucket (return) and the whole thing will gravity siphon.

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 SCALDburned 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 gravity siphon) the water exiting the return pipe is about 110 degrees, and while hot, will not burn you.

The water does not flow through the panel very fast (as the pipes are very small) but that is sort of a good thing as it allows the water to heat up a lot on its journeythrough the collector. It does take a while to heat up a 5 gallon bucket of water, I ended up building an insulated return bucket that was all black and sealed on the topexcept for the port where the water tube enters. This kept the returned hot water hot long enough to be of use. Simply pour the heated water back into the "cold" buckeand send it through the collector a second time for even hotter water.

I let this guy run for a couple of hours one hot sunny day and heated up a five gallon bucket of cold water (measured at 70 degrees F) to over 110 degrees F. The temthat day was about 76 degrees F. If the water is allowed to sit in the panel for several minutes and then forced out (by blowing in one of the hoses) the water wasmeasure at 170 degrees F. All in all we are much happier with the performance (and cost) of this panel. It performs much better than the previous one.

Our next modifications to this design will be to alter the return port so that it will thermo siphon, in this way the return hose can be fed into the source bucket and the wwill continually circulate in the panel getting hotter and hotter. We have also talked about adding mirrors to the panel to concentrate more heat. Our goal is to boil wateThis entire project cost less than five dollars, as I already had the screws, and the duct tape. The only thing I purchased was the air hose, which cost $3.76.

Enjoy the hot water.


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jaketeater says: Jan 13, 2010. 5:53 PM REP

This is a video I made about my solar water heater. Its more expensive than yours (about $300 total) but it heats up 80 gal (310 liters) to 135 F (55C).

Jake

Steve2476 says: Jan 28, 2010. 7:51 AM REPImpressive work brother. I'm a former CA Police Officer, now a Dept of State consultant and I've seen a lot of great ideas coming from my fellowamericans abroad. I think we North Americans are very resourceful and have common sense. Not saying all humans are not intelligent but we seem tdo it faster thereby getting it done instead of sitting around thinking about it. Good job brother.

Hey I'm thinking about going to Brazil. Would you have more info on the Missionary work you are doing there? I may be interested in taking a breakfrom what I do for a few months and helping out.Thanks,

[email protected]

jaketeater says: Jan 28, 2010. 3:40 PM REPYou can check out more about the orphanage by going to http://www.clmhome.com or go to my website http://www.teaters.com

I will send you an email so that you have my contact info.

Hasersys says: Jan 27, 2010. 7:26 PM REPThats sweet! Looks nice around there, you have cows. Oh and a lot of foam. That stuff is like ductape, it can be use for anything.

coppaj says: Jan 28, 2010. 7:04 AM REPThis would be a perfect addition to my workshop! It doesn't have running water, so I can set thjis up and have hot water to wash off the grime on my handbefore heading back to the house. My wife will love this! No more greasy door knobs!

armylifer says: Jan 24, 2010. 12:02 PM REPDon't use the parts from the fridge if you want to use the hot water for consumption, use brand new copper tubing. You can use a bender to get more tube

surface in the same area. Another take on this is to use this as a heater by routing the output to a automobile heater core with a small solar fan on the bacof it. It'll blow out warm to hot air just as it does in the car. Would work great for a camper if you run out of propane or a room in your home!! Mid-Westerners take note!!!

butchie50 says: Dec 29, 2009. 5:08 AM REP Someone asked about using car radiators instead of the refrigerator pipes. They may not have issues with freon, but they do have issues with antifreeze,which will kill you if you drink it. I prefer to live.

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dustyplans says: Oct 7, 2009. 9:51 AM REPThis is for my Team NRG kids. GET BUSY!!!!!!

The Team NRG is going to try and build this for a project at the Middle school.

Thanks for the Instructable.

SmartAZ says: Apr 29, 2008. 1:39 AM REPTo heat water on a larger scale, get a tank from an electric water heater and put it in a defunct refrigerator. Lay the fridge on its back on the south side ofyour house and hook up the pipes. Open the door in the morning and close it in the evening. Oh, and paint the tank black!

noyamlee1 says: Sep 23, 2009. 3:55 PM REPThis is a great idea, I'll try it.

jad51 says: Sep 22, 2009. 3:49 PM REPNice project, thinking about making one of these to heat a spa pool, using a solar powered pump to move the water through it.

shortduck says: Sep 21, 2009. 11:20 AM REPHi all sorry for my limited knowledge. I guess the core of this project is that when water travels from this black coil it gets heat up right ? and the glass and fhelps to trap the heat inside the box. Please correct me if I am missing something.

Wawan Sragent says: Sep 14, 2009. 11:04 PM REP

Owww..., I Like it... useful and friendly... Thanks all

gretsch says: Jul 20, 2009. 5:48 AM REPyou can check out the solar water heating guide here http://www.solarhotusa.com/support/literature.html to see how to make this a little more efficient. I dothink boiling the water is practical since the extra BTUs required to phase change the water.

Tolek says: Sep 12, 2009. 5:48 AM REPon this form you can also find a lots informaton about project like yours http://en.electroda.com/topic338507.html (site can be translated to differentlanguages). all temp. on this form is in C not F.

resago says: Aug 14, 2009. 5:07 PM REPyou don't want reflection, you want absorption. get a sheet of aluminum and paint it black and clamp your pipe to it. if you can't find or afford a sheet, you c

use a few layers of aluminum black screen, its cheap.

mhkabir says: Aug 24, 2009. 3:59 AM REPI think the concept is t reflect the sunlight back onto the PIPES.

albylovesscience says: Aug 3, 2009. 3:04 AM REPwow this is easy green and efficient

xiaolgoon says: Aug 2, 2009. 8:42 PM REPGreat idea!

guy90 says: Jul 31, 2009. 9:16 PM REPGreat instructable! If anyone has seen the wood fired jacuzzi systems- theres the concept of pumping cold water through heated copper pipes and back tothe pool, at a nice warm temp. So rather then having this solar rig linked directly to the pool, (thus frying the people in it), I'm going to take the coiled pipesout of my wood fired system and submerge them in the boiling water collected from this one!

MikeBiggs says: Jul 18, 2009. 6:01 PM REPI love this idea for a homemade solar heater. My question is related to convection in water, it's been mentioned but I don't believe confirmed in thecomments. If I were to attach a solar water heater such as this to an above ground pool in the fashion shown in my excellent diagram (art is not somethingexcell at!) would convection naturally force the water to flow through the piping as it heated up? If convection would do it then I could heat my small pool up(extremely slowly!) with no pumping required at all! Otherwise i'm thinking off some sort of excerice bike water pump contraption :D

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amendra says: Jun 9, 2009. 12:42 AM REPthis is a very cool design but i too feel su thing is missing because we dont know how to attach the collecter to the water tank or the water inlet or for storagit would b appreciated if that too was provided

dysynchronous says: Jun 30, 2009. 7:11 AM REPSolar dude & Amendra you need a reservoir for a system like this. The res is not pressure sealed. Float valve takes care of this. Injecting the hot wateryour system is where the fun happens. You may need an entirely separate gravity driven plumbing set to get it to you point of use (think of the hot wateside of the mixer valve in your shower or kitchen sink, or you may take a trick from "point of use tankless water heater systems, that is you return the howater to the cold line and run the desired temp from that line rather than mixing H&C at the faucet for desired temp, but in that case you will need topressue seal the Hot storage reservoir..... we don't need to do that in my country as most houses here have a separate waterstore to compensate for loor no water from our utility supplier, as well as functioning as an emergency reserve for natural disaters, ie hurricanes, earthquakes etc. you simply retethe output from the solar heater to the waterstore. Problem with this though is that the col;d water now comes from the fridge... strength & peace..

rseni says: Mar 28, 2009. 7:26 PM REPHow or where can you get the freon or other coolant removed from the back? Is it costly to get this removed?

dysynchronous says: Jun 30, 2009. 6:59 AM REPGet the evaporator coil from a scrapyard; the will already have scavenged or depotentiated the gases from the evaporator coil. It's because of this thatthe author of this article found himself sucking dirty water, it was used to displace the refrigerant gases. In the very near future I'll be doing athermodynamic analysis of the flow throughs for something like this. I did a basic, with some really guessed assumptions, which are , that the containedvolume of the coil would be 250 ml, that the collector was 1m2, and the thermal mass was perfectly efficient at transferring heat to the evap. coil, and threcoverable energy for the collector was 85% and that insolation was worth 1kW/m2. Start temp was 25 deg C target temp was 70 deg C. Total energyrequired to achieve deltaC was 3560 J. 1 watt = 1 J/s. therefore at 850 watts recoverable it would take about 4_1/2 seconds to achieve delta C. at thatrate the unit could energise (3600/4.5)*0.25 litres, id est 200 liters of water at peak insolation. I need to find the thermally driven flow factor for the circuthough, as i am trying to avoid using a pump. If anybody wants to collaborate though, The project is to use this heat engine to drive a Carbon Dioxideworking fluid refirgerator system for community based refrigeration and solar driven climate control. I have an advantage over most of you guys howevI live in the Caribbean and I'm 10 deg North of the equator.... so my problem ain't energy input , its heat rejection.... any how... My sincere thanks to theauthor of this Instructable. If I do this right a lot of poor people in the caribbean are going to benefit from your hardware hacking skills...strength & peace all...

jimbolya says: May 18, 2009. 8:47 AM REPYou just let it vent into the air.

HEY YOU says: Jun 18, 2009. 7:42 AM REPVenting Freon into the atmosphere is illegal and Irresponsible!! Reputable Junk dealers will have freon free units and the earth will thank you!!Cheers

jamesjamesjames says: Jun 12, 2009. 4:05 PM REPwhich is kind of ironic.. "By using the sun instead of fossil fuels to heat your water you will be preventing dangerous greenhouse gasses from beingreleased into the atmosphere, helping to prevent global warming."

iPodGuy says: May 18, 2009. 9:18 AM REPor not.

abcnow says: Jun 27, 2009. 1:27 AM REPWhen I was a Boy Scout, my scout master took a metal t rash can and welded both ends of a metal pipe (in the shape of a figure 8) to the t rash can. He sethe figure 8 into the fire pit and we built the fire on top of it (read solar panel). Then he filled the trash can with the water. The pipes were connected to thetrash can with one pipe above the other pipe. The lower pipe drawing water from the bottom of the can, the upper pipe putting the water back in the top ofthe can, (upper pipe still entering below the top of the water). We didn't have to pump or suck anything. I am not much of a scientist yet, but as hot air risesam going to conclude that hot water rises (when interacting with cold water), because that water was scalding hot for the whole week we were camping. Althere was a spout near the bottom of the trash can as well. Hot chocolate all week! I can't wait to try this with the solar panel. To avoid having to go outsideall the time, you would just have to bring the two pipes inside to the tank. The shorter the distance the better. As long as the coil solar panel is lower than thtank you should not have to have any pumps or do any sucking.

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be_prepared says: Jun 27, 2009. 9:45 PM REPTroop 40 Troopmaster Mr. Durland made this for scout camping trips. I would like to build a similiar water heater trash can for my above ground pool. Bdon't want to build a fire every time I want to heat my pool. I like the idea of the solar panel and want to mount this to my pole barn to empty hot waterinto my pool. Let me know how it goes for you.

hv3333 says: Jun 19, 2009. 3:21 PM REPI was just thinking about other heat exchangers that might be more easily/safely available - how about using one (or more) car radiators? Or even a houseradiator. Neither of them have issues with freon.

neutron7 says: Aug 16, 2007. 9:57 AM REP

Normally you would use it with a closed loop, with antifreeze inside, you would not actually have your drinking water going through it. there would be a loopinside your water tank, and when the water in the solar heater is warmer than the water in the tank it would start pumping. i always thought they should dothis with the waste heat from air conditioners as well.

DrStoooopid says: Aug 22, 2007. 7:50 AM REPsince when do you drink hot water?

gk1651 says: Jun 18, 2009. 9:25 AM REPI may not drink hot water…a good amount of absorption happens through your skin.... so be kind to yourself…be wise....y'all take care.

trebuchet03 says: Aug 21, 2007. 2:31 PM REPi always thought they should do this with the waste heat from air conditioners as well.

They do ;) But the more efficient your a/c is, the less effective it becomes :/ My power company recently got ri of the rebates for waste heat recovery :/

Solar Dude says: Jun 17, 2009. 9:20 AM REPNot really sure how you would connect that to the water lines in a house. You need it to be pressure sealed to handle city water pressure. There's a basicschematic of a profesionally installed solar water heater here: drainback solar water heater

rseni says: Mar 28, 2009. 7:14 PM REPDoes "drill" mean a drill machine? And what if I don't have the screw bits? I don't think we get it where I l ive. Can the rubber mats used in cars be used forthe backing material? What is "A box of wood screws" ?

jimbolya says: May 18, 2009. 8:58 AM REPIt would be a "box" containing screws that are used for penetrating wood. It you don't have a screw bit for your drill machine you can use a hand tool

called a screw driver. A screwdriver is a tool used to insert the screws into "wood" in this case. Most countries throughout the world have this tool and ia must have for anyone attempting this or many other projects.

sbauman7 says: May 16, 2009. 8:16 AM REPThis is a really cool concept, but I feel like we're missing the next step, which would be incorporating this into your current hot water system. Does anyonehave suggestions on actually using this in your home, other than going out and collecting water daily from this closed loop system?

SmartyHands says: May 16, 2009. 11:26 PM REPAn easy application would be to route the hot water from this system to the cold water coming into the heater (or on the far side of it, close to the fauceThe heater itself is insulated, so you would have to heat the pipes themselves. This would reduce the amount of energy spent to heat up the water in thsystem. Like, extend it to the house, and maybe route it through copper tubing coiled around the hot water pipes. Maybe with a small (solar powered!)pump in the circuit.

gwendelynn says: May 8, 2009. 6:36 AM REPyay thanks so much for posting this i need to do something like this for my science fair project if you dont mind though may i use your idea?

strmrnnr says: Apr 23, 2009. 8:13 PM REPI think this is a good set up accept the black background is prefered for me. I am thinking that a small box like this (useing a bar fridge rad.) made of morenon-flammable material, and placed in a focal point of a parabolic dish (say 6' diameter could get things really rockin'. Thanks.

wilmadan says: May 3, 2009. 12:58 PM REPmaybe instead of using a mat,we can use a junk galvanized sheet paint with black and use the mylar or aluminum foil as reflector...just like the solaroven...

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strmrnnr says: May 5, 2009. 6:15 PM REPI saw something neat the other day on YouTube. They were using steel wool in water to show how fast they could get the water to boil with aparabolic mirror. Under 3 minutes. It has to be in a vacuum or a liquid or i t will burn the wool though. Greenscience.com - a couple actors who puttogether a lot of videos. I believe they sell plans and parts too. Pretty good ideas and a lot of 'green science' know-how.

javipz says: Oct 23, 2008. 1:58 PM REPI think that aluminium paper reflects the solar energy outside faster than a simple inside painted in black.

wilmadan says: May 3, 2009. 1:02 PM REPi agree, maybe it is best to use the aluminum foil as a reflector of the sun from outside the frame,just like doing on the solar oven

aniyitzchak says: Oct 29, 2008. 8:58 AM REPYeah, if you paint the back black instead, that thing will get extremely hot (I live in Israel, and most of the houses use solar water heat, they are all builtwith black backings)

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