Make a Solar Powered Water Heater - Is it Really As Hard As You Think?
Congratulations on taking the first step toward making our world a cleaner place.
One of the easiest things you can do to make an immediate impact is to make a solar powered water heater from scratch.
If you haven't noticed we have an abundance of sun which gives us the chance everyday to harness it and use it to our advantage.
Now I know that to save power and energy you could simply reduce the time you spend in the shower or wash your dishes with cold water but really why sacrifice if you don't need to.
Think about it.
I'm not saying that reducing your energy usage and water consumption is a bad thing, especially in places that experience water scarcity.
But if you do not have to, if you have the ability to make your own hot water for free, or at least severely reduce the cost of your hot water bill then do it, and reap the benefits! What we are tying to achieve is far greater for the environment because we are almost entirely eliminating the use of power in generating hot water.
This in turn means we create fewer green house gases.
When you make your own solar powered water heater there are no green house gases being released to heat this water.
The water is passing through black plastic pipes over and over.
Black, as we all know, absorbs light very well, becoming quite hot as it does this.
When you pass water through these hot pipes guess what happens? You got it, the water heats up! Let's break it down.
It is super easy to make a solar powered water heater and here are the basics.
You need to have a black surface to attract and absorb the light/heat from the sun.
That surface material can be solid or liquid, but solid is easier to work with.
Let's use PVC pipes; I prefer many thin pipes because they have more surface area.
Next you need something to store the hot water in, well guess what? Every house already has a nicely insulated hot water tank so we will use that.
All that is required are a few tools and some piping to redirect the water.
You will need to have the cold water bypass the hot water tank and instead go to our solar powered water heater.
From there the water will rise as it heats up in the black tubes, and exit back to the hot water tank to be stored.
Hot water tanks work by assessing the internal temperature of the water, if it gets a little cooler because it isn't getting used then it gives it a little shot of heat either by electric or gas to keep it warm.
That isn't where all the energy is spent.
All your money goes into turning cold water into hot water which is why we build the solar powered water heater and take the big money guzzling part out of the equation.
Now the hot water we produce just needs to be kept at that steady temperature.
One of the easiest things you can do to make an immediate impact is to make a solar powered water heater from scratch.
If you haven't noticed we have an abundance of sun which gives us the chance everyday to harness it and use it to our advantage.
Now I know that to save power and energy you could simply reduce the time you spend in the shower or wash your dishes with cold water but really why sacrifice if you don't need to.
Think about it.
I'm not saying that reducing your energy usage and water consumption is a bad thing, especially in places that experience water scarcity.
But if you do not have to, if you have the ability to make your own hot water for free, or at least severely reduce the cost of your hot water bill then do it, and reap the benefits! What we are tying to achieve is far greater for the environment because we are almost entirely eliminating the use of power in generating hot water.
This in turn means we create fewer green house gases.
When you make your own solar powered water heater there are no green house gases being released to heat this water.
The water is passing through black plastic pipes over and over.
Black, as we all know, absorbs light very well, becoming quite hot as it does this.
When you pass water through these hot pipes guess what happens? You got it, the water heats up! Let's break it down.
It is super easy to make a solar powered water heater and here are the basics.
You need to have a black surface to attract and absorb the light/heat from the sun.
That surface material can be solid or liquid, but solid is easier to work with.
Let's use PVC pipes; I prefer many thin pipes because they have more surface area.
Next you need something to store the hot water in, well guess what? Every house already has a nicely insulated hot water tank so we will use that.
All that is required are a few tools and some piping to redirect the water.
You will need to have the cold water bypass the hot water tank and instead go to our solar powered water heater.
From there the water will rise as it heats up in the black tubes, and exit back to the hot water tank to be stored.
Hot water tanks work by assessing the internal temperature of the water, if it gets a little cooler because it isn't getting used then it gives it a little shot of heat either by electric or gas to keep it warm.
That isn't where all the energy is spent.
All your money goes into turning cold water into hot water which is why we build the solar powered water heater and take the big money guzzling part out of the equation.
Now the hot water we produce just needs to be kept at that steady temperature.
