The topic on everyone’s lips these days is how to build a solar water heater. With the continual rising overhead associated with the energy crisis, it rightfully should be the focus of conversation.

It is wholly within the grasp of anyone who is vaguely familiar with hand tools to fashion a home made version of a solar water heater. The construction of such a project is not complicated in the least. In addition to saving a significant sum of money, you will also be contributing towards a green environment. Even though you will see a vast number of diverse designs, most of them are moderately straightforward to build and the project would be a great DIY improvement for your home.

Getting to know Batch Solar Water

What I am describing here is known as a Batch Solar Water Heater, and it consists simply of some form of water tank enclosed in an insulated wooden container topped with a fiberglass lid. This contraption is used to preheat the water prior to it entering your normal home water heater. This tends to reduce the necessary energy needed to bring the water up to the proper temperature.

Do not be mislead, however, into the assumption that you can not create all your hot water needs, for on a particularly sunny day, it is possible to produce all your required hot water.

What You Need to Construct One

Prior to constructing your unit, you will need to determine a position near the home that receives a considerable amount of sunlight. Your solar collector will be the wooden box that you create to enclose the water tank. You will also need various lengths of water pipe and some flat black paint, and you are ready to begin.

Some Important Points to Note

Several calculations would be necessary in order to have your homemade water heater rise the temperature of the liquid to around 120 degrees; however, you can readily obtain those formulas off of the internet, so we will not go into the details on that here.

One of the factors which contribute greatly to the success of your water heater is the amount of insulation you use in your collector box. This is important, so you do not want to skimp in this area. If you fail to insulate the collector enclosure properly, you will lose considerable amounts of potential energy.

Once your collector box has been constructed and properly insulated, you will need to coat the water tank with flat black paint. Now all that is left is to connect the input and output water lines to the tank.

That is the very basics in a nutshell. Proper positioning and alignment with the suns rays and you are all set to enjoy hot water without the excessive expense!