Solar HOT Water is an amazing concept. The first true solar hot water collectors were developed in the late 1800′s by an ingenious fellow by the name of Clarence Kemp in Baltimore, Maryland.
By the 1940s solar water heaters dominated the rooftops of places like Florida and California but by the early 1950′s as electricity became cheaper, solar hot water took a back seat. With the mainstream recognition of the many benefits of a green, sustainable lifestyle solar hot water has once again taken the stage with millions of units being installed yearly. Currently the country that has embraced solar hot water the most is Israel with more than 90 percent of households heating their water with solar energy.
The designs of solar hot water systems are many and varied and range in price from a few hundred dollars to several thousand dollars. Then there is our best friend - the DIY solar hot water system. Here is a finely crafted system designed and built by Gary Reysa of Build It Solar.
This is a wonderfully efficient drain back unit with fantastic aesthetic appeal. It saves Gary $300 or so per year so the payback will be just over 3 years. He lives with his wife in Montana and this unit has glided through temperature drops to -30F without a hickup and has provided 95% of his hot water needs. Very Awesome!! According to Gary this system is the functional and thermal equivalent of a commercial system costing around $7000.
Here is fantastically simple design stumbled upon by Andrew Twidwell of ABT Plumbing in Grass Valley, CA. For those of you that don’t mind a little extra maintenance and aren’t concerned so much with aesthetics this system is very cheap and simple to build. If you need help finding any of the materials just give me a holler
The least maintenance, completely passive option is a thermosiphon system. These are the most basic types of solar water heating systems as they require no pumps but instead take advantage of the principles of convection - heat rises. The only major drawback of a system of this type is that the collector needs to be below or at least level with the storage tank.
Another great option for using a thermosiphon system, or any solar water heating system for that matter, is to incorporate it into a radiant floor heating system. Imagine Gary’s system in the top photo being hooked into tubing that is incorporated either under an existing floor or into a new thermal mass floor like poured adobe. His system is low enough that it would thermosiphon hot water through pex tubing under a floor. A system like this can be designed so that it heats up both water and space at the same time in a completely passive manner. Much more bang for the buck -)
Here are some great resource books on Solar Hot Water from Amazon -
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The following e-books will give you a great starting point for getting up to speed on passive solar and what it can do for the environment as well as your pocketbook. Enjoy!
1000 dollar hot water system in Tumbler Ridge Canada
A Solar Water Heater Workshop Manual
Bread Box Solar Hot Water Heater
Build Your Own Solar Water Heater
Build Your Own Solar Batch Water Heater
Construction and Installation of Water Heater Made of Disposable Packaging
Construction of the Zigzag Solar Water Heater
Design Solar Heating for Buildings and Domestic Hot Water
Horizontal Pond Domestic Hot Water Heater
Hot Water Solar Water Heaters Stack Coil Heating Systems
Solar Water Heater Workshop Manual
Solar Water Heating System Designs
The Integral Passive Solar Water Heater Book
Small Scale Renewable Energy Applications
How to Make a Folding Machine for Sheet Metal Work
LIFE IS GOOD-)
