I did a post a few days back about solar power for your home. Some folks on the Facebook page pointed out that the options featured were expensive and out of the reach of many people.
Today I am going to focus on budget solar power and when I say budget, I mean less than $5. That’s right, for less than $5 you can build a solar thermal panel, which will heat water to a temperature that scalds.
This option is small-scale and it is built around a reclaimed heat dispersal system from an old refrigerator (which you can get with the gas removed from your local dump). It has no pump as it is gravity fed and it requires no electricity to work. Just put it in the sun, turn on the water feed and you will get a slow but constant supply of very hot water.
Now this is all small-scale, but I see no reason why several of these panels could not be used together in some way, to meet a family’s entire hot water needs. The idea of using reclaimed heat dispersal systems from old refrigerators is genius and I definitely think there is enough here to run with, and create something more large-scale.
Head over to The Sietch and check out their tutorial complete with lots of photos to help you along the way.
How To Build Your Own Solar Thermal Panel For Around $5
(Photo from: The Sietch)
Pipe it to a hot water tank and it will keep circulating till the temp equals out in the water tank or blows the pop off valve..great ideal even if you still leave the hot water tank hooked to operating the way it was intended you are still going to slow the use of gas or electricity..Only thing is you have to shut and drain the lines to it come freezing temperatures outside.
One caution I would like to make. Hot water tanks are set at a safe temperature for safety reasons ( To prevent scalding yourself or children) This will be over ridden by a solar unit such as this..I would highly not recommend this type of solar unit for anyone with small children and the adults have to be careful not to burn yourself..Yes these solar units such as this one no matter how small it looks can really make very hot water (Steam) You just have to test the water before diving in….
Thank you so much. I’ve been wanting to scald myself but have been very perplexed about how I could accomplish it economically! Cheers!
You could also use a “horizontal ” or “flat ” central air conditioning coil ( the part that is indoors ) the bigger the unit the more water.
it`s so cool!!!!!11
The residual refigerant will contaminte the water.
contaminate*
could work for swimming pool
I am concerned about the condition of the water after going through the tubing – what about contamination from the residual oil and other chemicals that were once in the line? And if there is any lead-bearing solder used in the connection, there is a potential source of contamination with lead. Not to scare anyone off, but keep this in mind and be careful.
I think even if the water is contaminated somehow it won’t be enough to do any harm. It looks good.
Need 2 of them, then use one as a heat exchanger in a closed loop system. should remove most of the danger because the hot water would not have to be under pressure.
This is really great, however, you can improve it: instead of aluminum foil, you should use thin aluminum, or even better copper, panel. Weld heat dispersal system from an old fridge to the panel, and paint it to black. But do not use varnish, only frosted kind of black paint. Idea is to collect as more as possible sun heat, and that you can do by painting it in black. Most energy you would collect if you put everything in a box (glass or plexiglass on top). Glass should be transparent (not colored) because we are heating black panel behind the glass, and not the glass. Box should be insulated, and then you can use it even during a winter.
A local campsite has a solar hot water system for their showers. They took the inside of an old hot water heater, painted it black, and enclosed it in what lookes like a huge hog trough. The top was plexaglass & the inside was lined with those 4×8 sheets of styrofoam insulation with silver backing, cut to fit. The silver side was facing inside, toward the tank. (At first, I thought it was lined with tin foil.) The tank was laid on it’s side, so cold water went in one end & hot water came out the other. Totally solar.