Solar Hot water for permanent site.

Lots of stuff on "you tube"
homemade hotwater

Ian

Totally feasible,

Random thoughts..

Passive is simple, need a header tank for top up use a ballcock if you got pumped water.

You will need to vent to the atmosphere at the highest point.

Only issue with a coil may be airlocks preventing circulation.

It is possible to get the water too hot and cause scolding, so commercial systems have a cold water inlet for that, so be very careful and try to transfer the water to another container before showering.


Worth trying out

G'day Boobook, I would be inclined to build a model using 10mm poly tube and a 10litre plastic bucket.If the coil didn't work you could rearrange the tube to horizontal parallel using available off the shelf push together fittings Would be cheap and fun at the same time.

Hi Boobook,

I have used a simple semi passive system for years and removed it during some renovations and will be reinstalling it in the near future.

I am on gravity feed with a head of about 1 metre above the top of the house.
This gives me a head of about 2 metres at the shower rose. Important for a decent shower.

My system used 3/4 poly ag pipe and I had a 240 volt pump which I set on a timer to come on for 5 mins in every half hour. The reason I used a pump was that the storage tank was at ground level and the solar collector was on the roof of the house.

I now intend to reinstall the system but using about 100 metres of poly pipe on the roof, a 12 volt pump and a 12 volt Flexy Timer from Jaycar. This timer has an infinite variation of timer settings. You being a ham operator will have no troubles building the timer as it is a kit.

This way the system will be run on a solar panel and battery to provide power for the setup. This will free me from the grid for most of the year.

I will use something like a caravan pressure pump to do the transfer controlled by the timer kit.

The timer will be set so the the contents of hot water in the pipe, or solar collector, will be transferred into the storage tank each time it turns on.

You will need some sort valve to shut the system down each evening to stop reverse cycling as it may cool your tank down overnight.

Cheers, Bruce.

Hi Guys, EcoOnline.com.au Rep here, I noticed this post from the link to our panels below, thought I might add a couple of points.

One of the things you have to be really careful of when heating water is the growth of legionnaires bacteria in the water tank, lines and collectors. Legionnaires grows ideally at 35degC. Normally, solar hot water units boost temperatures up to 60DegC to kill legionnaires bacteria. I was researching this a while back as we wanted to commercialize a cheaper solar water heater, but never found a way around this potential issue.

Not sure about this but there are disinfectant products out there which could allow you to do this, you'd need to seek advice, but I still wouldn't recommend a permanent water storage unit.

I'd only recommend a temporary portable system with regular cleaning and disinfecting but again seek advice. One of our products which i have to point out is perfect for these types of systems and solves a lot of issues is our solar pump with integrated solar controller for systems where the collectors are above the tank. It turns off and on with the sun, no need for timers or valves to prevent cooling through reverse thermosiphon at night. But again seek advice on these types of systems with regards to legionnaires bacteria.

Willing to advise just contact me at EcoOnline