$1 portable, collapsible solar hot water collector

Making hot water using unmodified trash bags (which were later used for their intended purpose). You can't beat the ROI on these DIY solar collectors. In cold, cloudy or windy climates, an additional layer of plastic can be put over the top to hold the heat in like a greenhouse. Some day I will replace these with an inclined box and a toilet valve filler, complete with shower head.

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Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• DIY
• simple
• collapsible
• easy
• free
• fast
• cheap
• solar
• energy
• crisis
• economic
• alternative
• portable
• hot
• water
• heater
• bath
• washing
• green
• science
• solution
• low
• impact
• camping
• off
• grid
• vacation
• clean
• global
• warming
• co2
• greenhouse
• recovery
• reusable
• plastic

[zeebraeend]

COOL!!! Euh, I mean HOT!! But can you please tell me how you close the bags/keep the water from flowing out? And how do you get the water to its destination? By carrying the bags?

[themanyone]

@zeebraeend I used a stick to hold up the open edge of the bag. The bags are held shut by surface tension.

[gazzat5]

genius! How well did it work?

I'm thinking about the uses of a heater core from a car, they're available on ebay for pretty cheap or probably junk yards.

[themanyone]

@gazzat5 These worked well even in the cool Alaska summer. I took luxurious hot baths without worrying about the heating bill. I was going to replace these with a rigid, insulated collection box angled toward the sun, but I spent the winter in a nice, warm place where it was not necessary. A heater core would probably not work because it is too small of a collection area for the cost.

[josephdupont]

You could loop some flexible copper tubing in there or make some s's out of rigid copper and fittings. Put the bags on some insulation..

[cdltpx]

@cdltpx I like your idea it would be great to heat large amounts of water great for backpacking campers. I guess you bucket the water out till less is in bag to lift. How many times could you use the bag b4 the sun turned them into holy crap. Did you get water temp starting and finishing?This could work well with a table cardboard for gaps in wood must b in the sun gravity feed the water to the use vessel to prevent injury to your back. Add reflector?

[cdltpx]

@themanyone I spent $100 on solar evacuated tubes they are neat to heat 24 oz of water to boiling anywhere from 15 min with a parabola mirror or 2 hours positioned in the sun no reflector. I cut a hole in a 5 gallon bucket added sily cone to provide a seal I could get the water to 125 degrees no hotter. So I was thinking of using 2 vessels and a redesigned tube to allow siphen water flow to gradually flow through solar tube into insulated bucket hoping that would speed up water heatin&retention.