How to build a solar water heater – a basic guideline 

Are you wondering how to build a solar water heater? Here’s what you’ll need.

1.  

2.  Sheet of 0.25-inch foam insulation
3. 24x36 in. extended metal mesh
4. Zip ties
5. Vinyl pond tubing with 0.25-inch diameter (you’ll need 69 feet of those)
6. Wire cutter or tin snips
7. Two hangers for wire clothing
8. XXL Ziplock bags (1 box)
9. Spraying foam insulator
10. 0.25-inch drill bit & a drill
11. A 5-gallon bucket
12. Toxic PVC glue
13. Dremel & tool dip (it’s optional)

14.  

Firstly, you have to bend up the metal’s edge – preferably for 1.25 inches around its edge. Just use a regular pair of standard pliers here. Consider wearing leather gloves if you want to safeguard your hands while working with the metal.

Take that metal sheet and then start cutting your foam insulation sheet. Make sure that it marginally covers the inner side of that mesh on its "inside" surfaces. You need to form a frame for your solar panel. Place the foam sheet’s glossy Mylar side on the side which is apart from your extended metal mesh.

Lay your tubing over the foam in order that just one foot of the tubing remains hanging over that panel’s side. Now wind down the hose in order that it runs down till the panel’s length to the edge, which is at the distant end. Just use your twist ties for attaching the tubing with the wire which is on the foam’s Mylar side. Here, you have to poke a hole through that foam. Then zip-tie the tubing, with that metal mesh. You must use zip-ties at 6-inches interval till you reach to within the edge’s one inch.

Now you are going to work with the tube’s open edge. Carefully cut a decent hole into the mesh using wire cutters. Make sure that the hole is merely large enough for that hose so it fits through nicely. Cut that foam away around the hole too. Slip your tube in the hole.

At another end, your next job will be turning the hose, but stay away from getting it pinched shut. Just one inch apart from that tubing (which is just next to it), you will run that tube just parallel to the farther end. Start by zip-tying it down each 6 inches as well as at that loop which is on the edge/end. You will need to just repeat this process with those tubes – do it in columns and just an inch apart till you’re finished with a column in two inches of the end.

Proceed by running the remainder of the tube out to the end. For doing it, make a hole on the reverse corner like the 1^st hole which your tube enters that box through. Consider using spray foam insulation all around those hoses. Do this for ensuring they are not getting in touch with the metal (especially where they’ve emerge from those holes within the mesh).

For making a fully flat sheet, just cut that XXL Ziplock bag. Do this at its side seams. Proceed by zip-tying (to that mesh) that plastic "zipper" at all ends. You do this to make sure that your plastic here is fully pulled straight and tight.

Next task would be just straightening out the hangers. Roll over that plastic on a hanger for a couple of times at the bag sides’ free edge. Go on by poking a smaller hole into the plastic by that hanger (do it at 2-inch intervals). Proceed by using zip-ties for strapping that hanger with the mesh in order that the hanger has reinforced the bag’s edge. The same needs to be done on the other edge. Use spray foam for filling in the gaps.

Drill holes which are merely large enough for those tubes to comfortably slide into that 5-gallon bucket. A hole has to be carefully drilled right below the apex of your water line. Likewise, the other one must be drilled a bit low into the bucket. Here, you have to use PVC glue for sealing the tubing. Finish things up by using the foam sheet’s remaining parts that you cut before for insulating bucket.

If you were looking to know how to build a solar water heater, we hope the guidelines would be helpful!

Regards,

The Solar Heating Systems Team