Poor Man's Solar Water Heater

 

First, by way of background...  I consume a little over 800 litres
(210 U.S. gallons) of heating oil per year for space heating and
domestic hot water purposes.  By my estimates, water heating accounts
for over half this amount and a large percentage of this can be
attributed to stack and tank related losses.  My hot water consumption
is rather modest and there's probably not a whole lot more I can do to
reduce it any further (well, not without causing marital disharmony,
that is).

And therein lies the rub.  I can't justify the cost of installing a
solar how water system when my DHW demand doesn't warrant it.
Furthermore, my roof faces east-west and Halifax isn't known as
Canada's sunshine capital.

That said, on those seemingly few days when the sun does shine (like
today), a regular garden hose is a simple and inexpensive way to tap
into it.  As the sun shifts around the back of the house, I roll out
several lengths of hose on the patio and within an hour or so the
water is scalding hot.  Using a 10-litre bucket, I then transfer this
water to my front load washer.  My fuel oil savings are admittedly
small (perhaps no more than 0.25 litres per washer load), but for
roughly six months of the year I'll have the satisfaction of heating
atleast some my water with the sun and with no out-of-pocket expense.
I can probably extend the season by several weeks if I build a small
solar box and coil the hose inside, but for now simply leaving it
exposed on the ground works well enough.

Cheers,
Paul

 

You appeared to have contradicted yourself. You imply poor solar
availability and yet brag how well your garden hose works for hot
water.

Let me tell you, this February (mid Ontario) my home made roof panels
exceeded 105c anytime the sky was clear and the sun was shining
mid-day. Now December and January only grandstanded with about 6 hours
total of sunshine.

 

On Wed, 20 Jun 2007 18:18:08 -0500, "Solar Flaire"


Er, how so?  I do laundry on the days that sunshine is available, so
if it rains for five or six days in a row (not uncommon here on the
east coast), the dirty clothes pile up.  If I expected my crude solar
hot water system (if I may call it that) to offset some portion of my
bathing and dish washing needs, then I'd obviously have a problem, as
that's not something I can put off for several days at a time.

Cheers,
Paul

 

I can't explain it any simpler than I did.

 

On Wed, 20 Jun 2007 20:09:02 -0500, "Solar Flaire"


Then I take it you don't have much of a point, n'est pas?

Cheers,
Paul