Today, my solar hot water experimentation got a 55 gallon upgrade. I know a guy who works for a company that uses plenty of 55 gallon drums, and he had a few from work. I zipped over to his house on my lunch hour in the Electro-Metro and tossed the barrel into the hatchback. (There was actually enough room in the car for two!)
Back home, I cut the top off the barrel, and washed it out as best I could. (It still smells like artificial cherry flavoring…)
I then transplanted the copper coil pipe into the 55 gallon drum and filled it up with the garden hose. I bent the end of the copper tube to drain back into the 5 gallon bucket with the pump.
I figure that by heating a 55 gallon drum of water, I am getting a better estimate of what should happen in my 50 gallon steel tank when that is used as the final solar tank.
After a couple hours in the sun, the whole barrel was fairly warm (130 degrees) – not as hot as the the 15 gallon tub got, but still nice and warm.
I’ll report back in after the next full day of sun to let you know what kind of thermal heat I get from that.