$1000 DIY Solar Water Heater

[Dover]

This system can save $300+ per year in energy costs and reduce CO2 emissions by 2 tons. Full and free construction plans provided below -- it will cost about $1000 in materials.


As of late April 2009 we have lived with this system for 8 months. It has been trouble free and provided a solar fraction of 94% over the cold Montana winter. Aside from the failure of an off the shelf controller, it has required no maintenance. The drain back system has seen temperatures down to -30F with not even a hint of a problem.

I believe that the system has been and will continue to be the functional and thermal equivalent of commercial systems that seem to be going for around $7000+ these days.

Overview:
http://www.builditsolar.com/Experimental/PEXColDHW/Overview.htm

Detailed Instructions:
http://www.builditsolar.com/Experimental/PEXColDHW/RoadMap.htm



Also check out this video:
PARABOLIC TROUGH REFLECTOR SOLAR WATER HEATER GREEN POWER

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kXXOwfZA2Rk

[gateley]

1. K&R - Thanks! nt

[aquart]

2. Saving this page to my hard drive.

[Possumpoint]

3. Ditto

Saved

[kristopher]

4. Kick

This is an excellent resource, thank you for posting it.

[Dover]

5. Agreed. I've spent hours at that website. Here's another good resource

that is mentioned quite a bit on that site as a reference to articles:

http://homepower.com/home/