DIY Solar Water Heater For About $30 In PVC Supplies And Paint

[Daox]

This is a very cool setup. I wonder about the longevity of it though. What do you guys think?

DIY Solar Water Heater For About $30 In PVC Supplies And Paint

Did you know that 70% of your home energy cost are on water heating?

In response to this, a Brazilian Eco Designer developed a low cost and intelligent method of reducing energy costs and preserving the environment reusing waste.

He created a simple passive solar water heating using PET bottles and and some PVC pipe. According to his calculations this is an extremely low cost and safe project that you can do yourself at home.

This project has become popular on the web and has been adapted to homes and even schools. The State of Panama in Brazil created a Do It Yourself downloadable PDF manual (in Portuguese) that many consumers have followed and built. It looks simple enough... notice the metal pipes run through the bottles creating a "greenhouse effect" so to speak to heat the pipes via the suns energy. The more hot water you need, the more piping you add.

IIT techfest model on Solar water heater from plastic bottle - YouTube

[AC_Hacker]

Originally Posted by Daox

...This is a very cool setup. I wonder about the longevity of it though. What do you guys think?...

There is an economic dimension that needs to be considered...

I think that in an economy such as ours, a PET plastic water heater would be a waste of time. It would be better to build (as randen does) or buy a substantial solar water heater system that would give us a life span that we, in an advanced economy (at the top of the empire pyramid) have come to expect.

But in an economy, such as you would find in many parts of Brazil, where the 'middle class' is about 15% of the population, and the 'poor' are about 80% of the population, this design is absolutely brilliant, as it is using material from the waste stream and directing it to a useful application. If it holds up for a few months before being replaced, it is a huge success.

I have come across many studies where apparently simplistic technical fixes were still completely out of reach of the intended population, and the 'improvements' were just not sustainable.

Something to think about: the majority of people in South America live their whole lives, never experiencing a hot bath.

-AC

[oil pan 4]

It would last until the first hard freeze.
Which is something most of the US has to deal with.
If you used most of your hot water during the hottest part of the day this would be perfect. But for most of us using this with out a storage tank and circulation pump wouldn't really save any thing.
Also where I live, I have seen city water pressure up to 100psi. Let's say it does work a little too well, you heat the PVC up to 150°F and the pipe ruptures somewhere.
If your water pressure is only equal to a column of water as high as a tank on the side of your house then you are good.

[asif22]

This is amazing system for heating water at low cost.