Solar Heating Rainwater
Solar heating rain water to a high enough temperature to a feed solar shower is the goal of this design
Using the suns energy for solar heating rain water is a very simple system to design and make and can be very effective on hot sunny days. Ideal if you want to build a solar shower in the garden. Furthermore, a real bonus is that if you wash your hair in rain water it becomes very well conditioned!
The first thing you need to do is have a source of rainwater. The easiest way to do this is to harvest the rain water that falls on the roof of your home. So you tap into the down drain pipes and siphon off the water into tanks. You might want one tank per drain pipe.
From these collector tanks you now want to pump this water, using solar powered pumps, into a central holding tank. The ideal location for this would be on the roof of your house, installed in a position where it is in direct sunlight for the majority of the day. Make sure you paint the tank matt black, you will definitely notice the difference in the temperature of the water.
All you have to do now is hook it up to your outdoor shower and at the end of a sunny day you will have warm water to bath in.
If you are feeling more ambitious, you can boost the heating of the water in the central cylinder. You can do this by attaching a black hose pipe to the central holding tank. Connect one end to the outlet and one end to the inlet. The longer the hose pipe the better it works. Attach a solar pump to outlet of the central tank and slowly pump and circulate the water in the tank via the hose pipe. As the water travels around the hose pipe it can heat up to very high temperatures.
Another way to do this is to make a solar thermal panel using a radiator, if you need more panels just connect the radiators together in series. So that the water passes from one radiator to the next getting warmer as it passes through each one. Remember to paint your solar panels matt black.
If you have any ideas on how to improve this system or have any better solutions for solar heating rain water, then please leave a comment below.
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