Adding this to the diaries because it's an up date on what I am doing. I have done zip on the house. How the wife lets me get a way with it I don't know. I made one solar water heater with 100 ft of 1'' black pipe and a double glass door. It holds 3.5 Gallons of water. It's on the porch with a little shading from the rails. I only did one test and it did ok being winter and having no back plate in it. Temp out side was up to 50 deg's F by mid day. Water was 35 deg's F at the start.
Note only had sun on it for 4 hr's.
At different times I turned the pump on an mixed the water. 3.5 gallons in the unit and 2 gallons in the bucket. By the end of the day it was at 100 deg's F. This thing is build out of black board,plywood, 2x4's, the glass and 100 ft of 1'' 160 psi rated black pipe. I did not put metal sheets in behind it. I made this one to test in the summer. I though the black pipe might melt in the summer with metal backing. I will have to wait for summer.
I got my hands on a 10 dish with ever thing on it. There is a lot of them around here. People give them a way to get it out of there yards, The pole and mount I have done put in place.
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The dish I plan on putting Mylar on it. Still working on the best way to do it. I did a lot of searching and found that people use copper tubing as an absorber. So I will try that first. About 10'' round will be my starting point. I'm just not sure about copper. I picked up 2 disk about 30'' a cross for testing. Yes it burns a board with no problem and fast. I have done a lot of reading and have learned enough to build it. Any advice on building this would help. There is nothing like learning the little things that makes a difference.
Also working on this slowly.
Now you know why I have not worked on the house.
