Old radiator for solar water

[Annpan]

At the weekend I am going to be picking up an old radiator from a freecycler... My plan is to use it as a basic solar water heating device thingy.

Does anyone have any hints or tips, or has anyone done this themselves?

I haven't thought about it much yet but I am thinking

Paint it black
Build it into a shallow box, painted black with a glass (old shower screen) front
Plumb it into our existing tank using the loop from our old back boiler - hopefully the people with the old radiator will also have some old plumbing bits too.

Don't have the time or money to buy many parts from a plumbing place... so... I will be trying to use bits and pieces we have lying around.

Ummmm, not really sure if it'll work... or will it be so much work trying to get it sorted that it is prolly not worth it.


Plan B is to have it sitting on top of the old coal shed, in such a way that I can plug the garden hose into it, and on a sunny day, have th hose letting some water through the radiator and collect hot water in a bucket for cleaning.


Or not

[Clara]

This sounds the same as the system that the previous owner of my house had installed, and clearly it worked for him (though we do have more sun!). One word of advice, make sure that you understand exactly what each pipe is doing, where it is going and how it can be cut off (you´ll need to think about freeze-protection too).......we replaced the system with a vacuum tube one, because obviously that works better but also because we have a mass of pipes that no-one can fathom! Not fun when the tube on the roof exploded one frosty morning

Clara x.

[Annpan]

It will just be a temporary wotsit, to see us through the summer. When the woodburner is back on in October we will dismantle it. I don't plan on any frost proofing.

In high summer here we can get 15 hours of sunlight, not as hot as Spain perhaps but still worth having a go I reckon (we currently have NO hot water... unless it comes from a kettle)

[Martin]

it can be done - there are several designs out on the net as to how to optimise it. The most important thing to bear in mind is that it is after all a radiator, so it's pretty good at sucking the heat back out of the tank at night, unless you do something crafty to stop it!

[frozenthunderbolt]

so it's pretty good at sucking the heat back out of the tank at night, unless you do something crafty to stop it!

put in one way flow valves



+ you might wee want to flush it well with several "somethings" to get rid of any anti-freeze residue or other chemical build up. dont ask me what though . . . some kind of solvent then lots of water? help anyone?

is just that antifreeze is teh Uber nasty stuff to have IN you so i can't imagine it would eb good to have ON you either (thinking shower-wise)

[Archie]

Hi Ann.....I use blackpainted cooking pans in a wooden container. Lined with foil and a glass top. An iomproved version is where the saucepan rests in a washing 'copper'....all told get up to 20litres of mostly hot water, this time of year tis only warm, and in high summer (sic) very hot water. Do the washing up with some, soak clothes in some and put the rest in large flasks for the following am. Capital costs about £5 GBP
Pictures to follow when I've found them. No pipes, no spanners, no pressure problems, BUT got to empty and refill roundabout 4 to 5pm.
Insulate at night with blankets so the whole thing retains a bit of heat.

http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a48/ke ... tup002.jpg

[Archie]

[John Headstrong]

I have made basic hot water systems similar to want you describe, but more like this http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/e ... boiler.jpg

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_hot_water

but made from scrap maybe what you are after is one of them on top of the coal bunker ?? how far is the coal bunker from the house ?

I have also added a woodburner to a system once, which was quite small but really added to the heat build up!!

one word of caution, hot water can be dangerous !

other things to look at are
http://www.instructables.com/id/Solar-T ... Five-Doll/
http://www.greenbuilder.com/sourcebook/ ... PASSIVEDHW
http://www.motherearthnews.com/uploaded ... -01pic.jpg
http://www.motherearthnews.com/Renewabl ... eater.aspx

[Archie]

Blimey John some info there....this batch thing seems versatile enough, I like the system where the tank is the collector too. Seen them in Greece where the tank sits atop a collector but yours is an improvement.
Might try and do without the pot in my 'copper system' try for the water to heat up direct