# solar heated goat waterer



## fishhead (Jul 19, 2006)

I've been thinking of ways to keep a water supply for my animals ice free without electric.

One design I thought of would use an insulated wooden stand with a hole cut in the top so the water bucket would set down into the box with only the top rim sticking above the stand top. For heat I would use a 100' length of 3"corrugated drain pipe. The open pipe would lay level on the ground where the sun would strike it and one end would enter the stand slightly higher so that thermal siphoning would put the warmer air into the insulated space and warm the water.

Does this sound like it might work?


----------



## SolarGary (Sep 8, 2005)

Hi,
I think that might work to some degree, but I think that when the air is cold enough to freeze the water that the corrugated pipe won't pick up a lot of heat. Most solar collectors that work in the winter are glazed to keep their heat loss down.

I think that you might do better by ditching the corrugated pipe and adding a solar gain window to the south side of the watering tank. I think that if the tank is well insulated, this might work pretty well.

Kind of like this commercial one:
http://www.builditsolar.com/Projects/WaterHeating/water_heating.htm#Animals

Another way that would probably work well is a glazed, water heating thermosyphon collector located a bit below the watering tank. Kind of like your corrugated pipe, but glazed and heating water. This would be more trouble to make, but it has the advantage that it does not lose heat at night like the window one above.
Some sample thermosyphons:
http://www.builditsolar.com/Projects/WaterHeating/water_heating.htm#Thermosyphon
It would not need to be as large as these, and might work OK with just PEX pipe in a zig-zag pattern in a glazed box.

Please let us know how it comes out.

Gary


----------



## fishhead (Jul 19, 2006)

Thanks for the ideas. I've got a good spot for the second one.


----------



## SolarGary (Sep 8, 2005)

Hi,
I had another thought on the solar heater for a stock tank.

While the type that uses a simple direct gain window on the south side of the tank has the advantage of being nice and simple, it has the disadvantage of having a high heat loss at night through the window.
http://www.builditsolar.com/Project...ing.htm#Animals

An alternative that is still pretty simple would be to use a much smaller verion of this heater:
http://www.builditsolar.com/Projects/SpaceHeating/solar_barn_project.htm
Its an air heating thermosyphon heater. It does not lose much heat at night because it has the thin poly film backdraft dampers to prevent reverse flow.
I think you could make a version of this that is only as high as the stock tank, and would be built right on to the south side of the tank. During sunny periods the thermoyphon heater would heat the air, the air would exit the top vent of the heater, and flow down the south side of the tank, heating it, and then back into the heater. 
I use this heater on my shop, and it works like a champ, and requires no power or controls of any kind.

It would still be key to insulate the tank and minimize the amount of exposed water surface.

Gary


----------



## speshuled (Oct 4, 2005)

if you can go back in the archives of mother earth news they had a solar water trough .basically it was boxed in , with a glass panel that faced south . between the box and the trough was scap concrete . i nthink they painted everything black before they put the glass down ,to help with the heat gain . the concrete , held enough heat to keep the water from freezing .


----------



## Anderson farms (Mar 26, 2007)

solargary can you give a little more detail on how to build one of the "suntanks" in the first link. I am new to all this and don't know how to make anything like this. Also got any ideas on solar power for a chicken she to run a 60 watt light bulb in to keep it warm and or a solar water heater so i wouldn't have to carry water to the chickens every day. Thanks


----------



## greg273 (Aug 5, 2003)

Anderson farms said:


> solargary can you give a little more detail on how to build one of the "suntanks" in the first link. I am new to all this and don't know how to make anything like this. Also got any ideas on solar power for a chicken she to run a 60 watt light bulb in to keep it warm and or a solar water heater so i wouldn't have to carry water to the chickens every day. Thanks


 You'd need a solar panel, a small charge controller, a battery, and the light. DC would be simplest, you could omit an inverter. 
Check out the Northern or Harbor Freight catalogs, they have simple solar light kits, under $200. But thats probably less wattage than you are talking about.


----------



## SolarGary (Sep 8, 2005)

Anderson farms said:


> solargary can you give a little more detail on how to build one of the "suntanks" in the first link. I am new to all this and don't know how to make anything like this. Also got any ideas on solar power for a chicken she to run a 60 watt light bulb in to keep it warm and or a solar water heater so i wouldn't have to carry water to the chickens every day. Thanks


Hi,
I've never seen the inside of one, but it looks to me like the window just lets sun shine on the outside wall of the tank. The tank outside is black to absorb heat well. I would guess that all of the tank that is not directly behind the window is insulated. That is, the area between the red outer shell and tank is filled with insulation. There should also be insulation under the tank.
The only disadvantage I see to this design is that the window will lose heat at night, but it might still work fine.

I got curious enough about this that I am putting together a similar one made out of scraps I have around. I should be able to get some spare time to finish it within a week, and will take some pictures. My tank is made with leftover plywood lined with left over EPDM rubber sheet (pond liner), and glazed with leftover SunTuf polycarbonate glazing. But, even if one bought everything it should be pretty cheap.
I'm curious to see if it works in our cold climate.

Thinking about a floating insulation lid that has a hole in it for the goat/horse to drink out of. The idea being to to limit the water surface area as much as possible to reduce heat loss. Will animals tolerate the fairly small opening to drink out of?

How much water does a horse (or goat) drink in a day?

Gary


----------



## wy_white_wolf (Oct 14, 2004)

Can't find it now but there was an article in the lastest farm show mag about someone marketing a solar powered bubble that kept the water in stock tanks from freezing. Or at least would thaw out a section of the them above the bubbler through water movement.


----------



## fishhead (Jul 19, 2006)

My three 50-60 pound wethers drink less than 2 gallons a day and that's with them eating nothing but dry hay.

I'm looking forward to your design.

I'm pretty sure my goats would drink out of a 4" opening but they would probably eat the styrofoam for fun.


----------



## UP HUNTER 1967 (Apr 4, 2007)

my 4 horses will drink about 80-100gal of water every 2days let me know how this works for you right now I use stock tank heaters and the cost is killing me in the winter months


----------



## wy_white_wolf (Oct 14, 2004)

http://www.solarranch.com/spbubbly.html


----------



## fishhead (Jul 19, 2006)

Where can a person buy glazing? How much does it cost?


----------



## SolarGary (Sep 8, 2005)

fishhead said:


> Where can a person buy glazing? How much does it cost?


For this kind of a stock tank heater, I think that the SunTuf corrugated polycarbonate that Home Depot sells for $1 per sqft would be fine.
Its pretty tough, and should stand up to some animal abuse.

Gary


----------



## fishhead (Jul 19, 2006)

Great! We have a Home Depot in town.

I'm thinking of building a waterer that is an insulated plywood box with a hole cut in the center so the bucket fits down into the box except the rim. The collector will be a simple connected to the bottom of the box so that cold air will drop into the collector. I can position it to sit on the edge of a wooden deck with the collector hanging over the edge.

How do I find the angle of the collector for my latitude? Can I just make it vertical?


----------



## wy_white_wolf (Oct 14, 2004)

Your latitude + 18 to 20 for heating


----------



## fishhead (Jul 19, 2006)

Where is zero degrees?


----------



## wy_white_wolf (Oct 14, 2004)

Horizontal


----------

