# $5 solar thermal water heater



## GoddessKristie (Jun 18, 2007)

I thought this was inventive!
http://www.instructables.com/id/Solar-Thermal-Water-Heater-For-Less-Than-Five-Doll/
I'm going to go dream about what that could do if you linked about 50 of those together....


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## mightybooboo (Feb 10, 2004)

Great idea! I bet that could really be improved upon with his basic idea.

Love the recycling / town dump part...using originally expensive materials at 2nd hand bargain prices,SUPER!


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## How Do I (Feb 11, 2008)

Good creative use of junk materials. Thanks for the link!


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## watcher (Sep 4, 2006)

I don't see you being able to get much water though it.


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## Windy in Kansas (Jun 16, 2002)

I toyed with the same idea. The refrigerator I was scrapping had very tiny tubes, not large enough to support flow from my very small pump since I wanted my unit to be active rather than passive.

I have also considered putting the fins w/tubing from a central air-conditioner unit into a solar heated box and run water through it for heating. One might also use the A coil from a furnace unit.

Before copper tubing got so high priced I thought about putting a roll of small diameter tubing into a solar box and pumping water through it after painting it black. 

Where I live there is absolutely no salvaging allowed at the landfill. You get caught and you get a hefty ticket and fine. There are enough employees working at it that it would be hard to pilfer without getting caught.


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## mightybooboo (Feb 10, 2004)

I have a friend we call McGiver,a genius with making do.

His plan was to put some tubing in an asphalt driveway to make hot water.Unfortunately his homebuilt mansion (It really was) was destroyed by an Earthquake (The epicenter was directly below him!) a few years back and rebuilding has quashed that plan for now.

But if youve ever stepped on hot asphalt,thats a LOT of heat.He also thought of an asphalt block with glass cage too.

Good idea eh?


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## fishhead (Jul 19, 2006)

Windy in Kansas said:


> I toyed with the same idea. The refrigerator I was scrapping had very tiny tubes, not large enough to support flow from my very small pump since I wanted my unit to be active rather than passive.
> 
> I have also considered putting the fins w/tubing from a central air-conditioner unit into a solar heated box and run water through it for heating. One might also use the A coil from a furnace unit.
> 
> ...


Our recycling center resells usable metals so if you have one locally I would check with them.


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## fishhead (Jul 19, 2006)

mightybooboo said:


> I have a friend we call McGiver,a genius with making do.
> 
> His plan was to put some tubing in an asphalt driveway to make hot water.Unfortunately his homebuilt mansion (It really was) was destroyed by an Earthquake (The epicenter was directly below him!) a few years back and rebuilding has quashed that plan for now.
> 
> ...


And the asphalt would store that heat until well into the evening.

I've seen a few starter castles in our area that must have heated driveways because they never have any snow one them for very long.


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