Make a Solar Water Heater for Less Than $5 - Gizmodo Comments

Make a Solar Water Heater for Less Than $5

bdkennedy1 — Thu, 16 Aug 2007 01:35:12 EDT

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

bdkennedy1

Make a Solar Water Heater for Less Than $5

izzaboo — Wed, 15 Aug 2007 15:47:03 EDT

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

izzaboo

Make a Solar Water Heater for Less Than $5

EQC — Wed, 15 Aug 2007 15:20:46 EDT

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.

EQC

Make a Solar Water Heater for Less Than $5

Ben Zvan — Wed, 15 Aug 2007 15:10:44 EDT

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

Ben Zvan

Make a Solar Water Heater for Less Than $5

Fierock — Wed, 15 Aug 2007 14:56:46 EDT

@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.

Fierock

Make a Solar Water Heater for Less Than $5

DeadWriter — Wed, 15 Aug 2007 14:52:15 EDT

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.

DeadWriter

Make a Solar Water Heater for Less Than $5

AngrySicilian — Wed, 15 Aug 2007 14:48:10 EDT

@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.

AngrySicilian

Make a Solar Water Heater for Less Than $5

pupaboy — Wed, 15 Aug 2007 14:11:21 EDT

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.

pupaboy

Make a Solar Water Heater for Less Than $5

MissCellania — Wed, 15 Aug 2007 14:03:06 EDT

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

MissCellania

Make a Solar Water Heater for Less Than $5

dufus — Wed, 15 Aug 2007 14:01:16 EDT

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.

dufus

Make a Solar Water Heater for Less Than $5

x23 — Wed, 15 Aug 2007 13:47:28 EDT

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

slightly less ghetto though (surprisingly).

x23

Make a Solar Water Heater for Less Than $5

ninjagin — Wed, 15 Aug 2007 13:30:07 EDT

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!

ninjagin

Make a Solar Water Heater for Less Than $5

homerjay — Wed, 15 Aug 2007 13:14:02 EDT

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

sunburn...

homerjay

Make a Solar Water Heater for Less Than $5

crob611 — Wed, 15 Aug 2007 13:10:17 EDT

@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.

crob611

Make a Solar Water Heater for Less Than $5

ninjamurf — Wed, 15 Aug 2007 12:57:10 EDT

@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.

ninjamurf

Make a Solar Water Heater for Less Than $5

vagrant — Wed, 15 Aug 2007 12:52:56 EDT

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

vagrant

Make a Solar Water Heater for Less Than $5

Roland Rat — Wed, 15 Aug 2007 12:48:49 EDT

Although it's not very efficient it looks nice

Roland Rat

Make a Solar Water Heater for Less Than $5

ideaman2020 — Wed, 15 Aug 2007 12:38:47 EDT

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....

ideaman2020

Make a Solar Water Heater for Less Than $5

EQC — Wed, 15 Aug 2007 12:25:59 EDT

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.

EQC

Make a Solar Water Heater for Less Than $5

St3v3 — Wed, 15 Aug 2007 12:21:13 EDT

This is an Al Gore approved ghetto inovation!

St3v3

Make a Solar Water Heater for Less Than $5

Limekiller — Wed, 15 Aug 2007 12:12:40 EDT

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.

Limekiller

Make a Solar Water Heater for Less Than $5

europria — Wed, 15 Aug 2007 12:01:44 EDT

What about car radiator? It has more surface area.

europria

Make a Solar Water Heater for Less Than $5

zarchitect — Wed, 15 Aug 2007 11:58:14 EDT

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...

zarchitect

Make a Solar Water Heater for Less Than $5

ANoel — Wed, 15 Aug 2007 11:57:51 EDT

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

ANoel

Make a Solar Water Heater for Less Than $5

Bloody_Sorcerer — Wed, 15 Aug 2007 11:52:20 EDT

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.

Bloody_Sorcerer

Make a Solar Water Heater for Less Than $5

bigTrue — Wed, 15 Aug 2007 11:52:09 EDT

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.

bigTrue