DIY Solar Water Heater (not electric)

Markit

Only been planning on building one of these for about 12 years or so] now and having prevaricated and delayed as long as humanly possible I thought I'd ask if anyone here has any experience building one? Want it on the roof (flat bit) and to feed into (1/2 inch piping) my existing electric storage water heater (100L and turned off, I hope). Thanks in advance.

SamD

Markit wrote Only been planning on building one of these for about 12 years or so] now and having prevaricated and delayed as long as humanly possible I thought I'd ask if anyone here has any experience building one? Want it on the roof (flat bit) and to feed into (1/2 inch piping) my existing electric storage water heater (100L and turned off, I hope). Thanks in advance.

I did it Fiji many years ago. I honestly can't remember exactly how it was set up, black pvc pipes in a glass box, but the one thing I do remember is that it DIDN'T EFFING WORK! Just as the solar electricity system didn't work either. But that was 20+ years ago.

Markit

SamD wrote I did it Fiji many years ago. I honestly can't remember exactly how it was set up, black pvc pipes in a glass box, but the one thing I do remember is that it DIDN'T EFFING WORK! Just as the solar electricity system didn't work either. But that was 20+ years ago.

Well that's incredibly encouraging there Sam, thanks for that! Might be interesting to know why it didn't work...?

Fred2

I have Beasley solar hot water and its not connected to power, never had a problem.

SamD

Markit wrote Well that's incredibly encouraging there Sam, thanks for that! Might be interesting to know why it didn't work...?

I know the reason it didn't work but I can't articulate it on a public forum because there might be some Fiji Indians watching.

Markit

SamD wrote I know the reason it didn't work but I can't articulate it on a public forum because there might be some Fiji Indians watching.

Bintang lunch with Bintang chasers today?

SamD

How did you know? That is my goto lunch option.

Markit

SamD wrote How did you know? That is my goto lunch option.

I eat there occasionally myself ;)

Shadrach

dustyrivergardens wrote We have been using a Solar water heater for over 4 years now and we have observed that the water does not get as hot as it used to be at the beginning. Was wondering if there is any regular maintenance activity that can be done by ourselves before calling for professional help.

Sounds like you need to clean the glass! Or the inside if that got dirty somehow!

dustyrivergardens

Only been planning on building one of these for about 12 years or so] now and having prevaricated and delayed as long as humanly possible I thought I'd ask if anyone here has any experience building one? Want it on the roof (flat bit) and to feed into [COLOR=rgb(0, 0, 0)]Plumber in Maui[/COLOR](1/2 inch piping) my existing electric storage water heater (100L and turned off, I hope). Thanks in advance.

We have been using a Solar water heater for over 4 years now and we have observed that the water does not get as hot as it used to be at the beginning. Was wondering if there is any regular maintenance activity that can be done by ourselves before calling for professional help.

Shadrach

As one person commented they had a black box with black pvc pipes inside but said it didn't get hot enough. Maybe the box was not big enough. I have heard of using copper pipe inside. The box has to be around 2 meters long and 1 meter wide and around 6 inches high, to get enough of a surface to heat the water. Painted black behind the copper pipes. The concept is basic, cold water comes in at the bottom and hot water comes out the top. I made a hot water system using an old tank from a broken electric heater. I had it behind a wood stove, which I used all winter and early spring in the States. It is the same concept. Cold water comes in at the bottom goes through my hot stove, then hot water came out the top. One important factor is never let it run out of water! It's called convection when the water goes round and round due to cold coming in and hot going out. I'm sorry if I can't explain it better. I'm sure there are many examples of how to build one on Google or Youtube. Good luck! Hey it's only been 12 years, what's your hurry! To be safe I would put a pressure relief valve on the hot exit pipe! I saw a video where a guy used many coils of black pvc connected together and had them near the roof of his green house and had plenty of hot water, not boiling but Hot!

Markit

Moving forward nicely - since my original post I've actually managed to buy 100m of piping. It's still sitting in my store room, of course, since I don't want to rush into anything. In truth I've been stupidly busy since then and needed to clear the deck, as it were, first before the next project takes off. My present water heater was not giving much hot water until I checked the pipes running out of it.

dustyrivergardens wrote We have been using a Solar water heater for over 4 years now and we have observed that the water does not get as hot as it used to be at the beginning. Was wondering if there is any regular maintenance activity that can be done by ourselves before calling for professional help.

they were calced up to feck, only a tiny little hole for the hot water to get through. Maybe do some de-scaling - a little vinegar goes a long way.