If you need fridge parts, check your local craigslist.com free section. At least here in Detroit you see at least 3 fridges a week.

if the fins were removed, less heat would be dissipated from the water and temperature would probably rise. then again, there may be some tradeoff between fin sun absorption and fin cooling effects.

... and maybe one day it'll grow up to be like this!
[gizmodo.com]

So can I make a cheap photovoltaic panel with duct-taping a bunch of solar-calculators we get for free at the expos? I'll be ghetto-like and screw it on top of my Prius to power the radio...

What about car radiator? It has more surface area.

My dad made a similar rig in the '70s when I was a kid to heat the water in our backyard pool after discovering how expensive it was to use the gas heater. It would heat enough during a sunny day to remain warm after sundown for a few hours. I don't remember what he used as the coil, but I remember it was about 3'x8' and behind a glass panel. He was always scavenging things like this from industrial sites where his engineering firm had projects.

This is an Al Gore approved ghetto inovation!

Rather than using this as a stand-alone water heater, it might be better to just use it as a "pre-heater" for home use.

This way, cold water comes to your house, goes through this thing and gets warmed up if conditions are right, then goes to your water heater as usual where it might get warmed a bit more. This way, if it's sunny out, your water heater does less work and you save some money on the gas bill. If conditions aren't ideal, you're not losing anything or suffering with cold showers.

Just remember when you "snag the coolant grill from an old refrigerator that you might have lying around" that its probably filled with fluorocarbon gases which you should dispose of properly....

Although it's not very efficient it looks nice

I'll stick with the 5gal black solar bag I use when camping.

@Bloody_Sorcerer: I don't think there is very much heat being "dissipated" in this setup. There's not a lot of airflow so there isn't anything to take the heat away. And some of the radiant energy is just going into the water anyway.

@europria: There is more surface area in a car radiator but none of it is facing the sun, thus no heating. A car radiator works by forcing cold air through it and taking heat away. For something like this you want as much black surface area facing the sun and in contact with the water. Then the water takes the heat away.

@LimeKiller: My dad ghetto rigged our swimming pool too. He had some big copper panels that were on the roof of the garage. He would pump water out of the pool and they would run through the series of copper panels, and then back into the pool. The water coming back in was probably 95 degrees or so. We would turn it on in the morning and it would make a noticeable difference on the overall water temperature by afternoon.

Ya know what else is a "good demonstration of the simplicity of solar energy?"

sunburn...

When I was in French Polynesia, each house had a solar water heater. They were these little rooftop units that had a 5x5 solar panel and a tank attached to it. Electricity did the heating. They worked great!

sorta reminds me of the Soda Can Heater from a few months back.

slightly less ghetto though (surprisingly).

If you hook something like this (or something beefier like the fin-pipe used in baseboard heating painted black) you can heat a tank of water without needing a circulation pump.

Just put the solar collector lower than the storage tank. The heated water (being less dense) will try to "float" on top of the cooler, more dense, water in the tank. Cooler water from the tank will take the place of the warmed water in the collector, and the cycle repeats.

The process is called a thermal siphon, and could be used to create quite a few gallons of hot water on sunny days, using no electricity or fuel.

I have a 150 garden hose that lays in the backyard all summer. You can take a really hot shower with it, presure included!

I am sure there are plenty of illegal dumping sites in your county where you can find and old refigerator. Just swing by and pick one up.

@ideaman2020: Yes this is a vital point. You do NOT want to release those gases into the atmosphere!

Moreover, if you get caught by someone with at least half a brain, you are in for a hefty fine.

Best to part out fridges that have working compressors, but no cooling, that way you know that all of the coolant has already leaked out. While modern fridges are more environmentally friendly, older ones are not.

@EQC: then you could also add glycol to the water in the tubes so you wouldn't have to worry about it freezing up in winter.

Oh great, taking a shower in freon tainted water. Yum.

FIEROCK: Yah, I'm from Southern California...where even in winter, 80% of days get plenty of sun, and even nighttime temps rarely go below freezing. So the preheater idea might be useful for me...and a nightmare in many other areas of the country.

in wyoming you could pump glycol through it into the tubes embedded in your sidewalk. never shovel snow again. dude.

The water would get hotter if he would plug it in to an electrical outlet.