the Otherpower.com Discussion Board || Comments solor water heater

Front Page - [Homebrewed Electricity-- (wind) (solar) (hydro) (steam) (controls) (storage) (mechanical)] - Classifieds - Site News
Everything - Newbies - [Remote Living-- (housing) (heat) (light) (water)] - Rants & Opinion - Diaries - Our Products

solor water heater | 8 comments (8 topical, editorial)

Re: solor water heater (3.00 / 0) (#2)
by huntedheads (huntedheadsathotmaildotcom) on Tue Sep 16th, 2008 at 12:40:39 PM MST
(User Info)

I agree EVERY one should have one! I was so surprised at the amount of hot water from the flat plate collector I made. As for bells and whistles I made mine self regulateing by putting a temp. controller from a power attic fan inside the collector now when it reaches 120 degrees inside the pump comes on and off below 120. You'd be surprised how little sun it takes to make heat!
Good Job!

Re: solor water heater (3.00 / 0) (#3)
by Ungrounded Lightning Rod on Tue Sep 16th, 2008 at 02:25:16 PM MST
(User Info)

Figure about 1 KW per square yard at right angles to noonday sun, and about 5 solar hours per day. That's 5 KWHr raw for a 3x3 (or 4x2 1/4) panel. Figure about 3.5 KWHr of that gets captured as heat and not lost through the insulation and the like. (A tad less on cloudy days. But light cloud cover mostly defocuses it more than attenuating it.)

3.5 KWHr is 3500W x 3600sec = 12.6 million joules = about 11943 BTU.

Divide by 8.32 oz/gal and you get 1435 gallon/degreesF of temperature rise. Call it 60 degrees supply water and 120 output for a 60 degree rise and you get about 24 US gallons of hot water per day. Start from 70 and you get about 29.

Modern shower heads are designed for 2.5 gallons/min. Mix with some cold water and you're good for three 5-minute toasty-warm showers. Or just take one and keep 20 gallons for other uses.

for a dishwasher load, down to 9.
for a front load washer - but use a warm/cold cycle and you've only run maybe 4 or 5 gallons of hot. Still a few gallons left for hand washing.

Or build it bigger and you can have a family. B-)

[ Parent ]

Re: solor water heater (3.00 / 0) (#4)
by zap (bell47g5a at comcast dot net) on Tue Sep 16th, 2008 at 10:28:03 PM MST
(User Info)

"Or build it bigger and you can have a family."
ULR... I think you need some more sex education. From what I know about it, more hot water has nothing to do with getting a family! : )

zap
[ Parent ]

Re: solor water heater (3.00 / 0) (#5)
by luv2weld (luv2weld at hughes dot net) on Wed Sep 17th, 2008 at 07:30:34 AM MST
(User Info)

Maybe you should rethink that.
If you don't take a shower, you ain't getting to sleep
with any women I know!!!!
Therefore, no family!! :)

Ralph
"The best way to kill time is to work it to death!!"
[ Parent ]

Re: solor water heater (3.00 / 0) (#8)
by Ungrounded Lightning Rod on Wed Sep 17th, 2008 at 03:07:57 PM MST
(User Info)

Ditto if you want to keep the family you have. They're much less likely to stick around if they can't have clean bodies, clothes, and dishes because you were too cheap to have enough hot water. B-)

[ Parent ]

solor water heater | 8 comments (8 topical, 0 editorial)

Menu

· create account
· How to use the board
· FAQs
· search the board
· Google search the board
· Old Otherpower Board

Login

Make a new account

Username:

Password:

You must be a registered user to post here. It's easy and free, and the link is on the upper right side of your page.
All trademarks and copyrights on this page are owned by their respective companies. Postings are owned by the poster, but may be deleted or moved at the ADMIN's sole discretion. The Rest © 2003 Forcefield.
You can Email the board ADMIN here. PLEASE include the username you signed up with!