If you could make your own solar water heater that would reduce some of your energy costs and would put you one step towards building a solar power system for the whole home.
Build Your Own Solar Water Heater
By Josh Stevens
If you have ever opened a car that’s been closed up and sitting in the sun you know how much heat is in there. Using the same principle as that is how you can heat up your water. Although you would have to have a solar collector and holding tank for the water.
The solar collector would be working to heat the water that flowed through it. The collector is usually a box like fixture with the water lines running through it. A plate painted black at the bottom of the box would absorb the suns energy and heat up, the box would have a glass cover that would act like the cars windows and intensify and hold the energy inside.
The solar collector would be best used facing to the south unless you live really close to the equator in which case it would be pointed more up. In the winter you should still be able to heat your water unless you live in an area with a lots of freezes. In that case you would have to use an active solar heater with a pump to circulate the water. A passive system has no moving parts and relies on the principle of hot water flowing up and the cooler water staying lower.
You can build your own solar hot water heater with not much difficulty if you had a set of plans. You can find used parts or scrounge parts to use for assembly. Building your own solar heater would be fun to do and it would reduce your energy costs. For something on a smaller scale you could build one for an outdoor shower.
I found this guide for making a Solar Water Heaters that looked interesting.
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Alternative energy sources can help reduce your energy costs and help the environment.
