You Can Build Your Own Solar Water Heater

Have you ever opened a car door after the car has been sitting out in the sun, you felt all that hot air come out of the door as you opened it. This heating of the air is the same principle behind how you can heat your water. For heating your water you would have to have a solar collector and holding tank for the water.

The solar collector would be used to heat your water as it flowed through it. The collector is normally a box like fixture that has water lines that runs through it. A metal plate painted black would be at the bottom of the box that would absorb the suns energy and heat up. The box would have a glass cover that would act like the cars windows and intensify and hold the energy or heat inside.

The solar collector would work best facing south unless you live close to the equator in which case it would be pointed more up. In the winter you can still heat your water unless you live in an area that gets lots of freezes. In that case you should use an active solar heater with a pump that circulates the water. A passive system has no moving parts and relies on the principle of hot water flowing up and the cooler water staying lower.

You can assemble your own solar hot water heater if you had a set of plans. You can find used parts or scrounge parts to use for assembly. Building your own solar heater would be fun and it would help reduce your energy expenses. For a heater on a smaller scale you could build one to use for an outdoor shower.