I found a design for a solar water heater on the 'net.
The builder said the first unit caught fire and burned-up.
The second design attained 600 F.
Sounds just like what I was looking for!
I've been using a lot of white gas (Coleman fuel, naptha) to heat my shower water. decided to reduce my dependency on the gas stove by using solar power.
The images:
http://s287.photobucket.com/albums/ll154/rbuchananlogman/
show the building sequence of the insulated parabolic box, and the last image is the unit out in my field with two of eight reflectors in use.
The reflectors are to be attached with door hinges. Removing the hinge pins
allows the unit to be quickly disassembled. The hinges are expensive at the local hardware store but Brown's Building Supply in Spokane had them for 75 cents each. Good thing they were cheap, I needed twenty four hinges.
I positioned the unit to catch the setting sun. With only a short exposure to the sun at day's end it still managed to get the water in the stainless steel cylinder up to about 155 F. Plenty hot for a nice shower.
When I'm finally finished the unit will have eight reflectors with a power of "9 suns". I designed it to gather as much heat as possible on an overcast winter day. A plywood gymbal will allow the unit to be oriented to the sun for time of year, and time of day.
A heater that warms the water during the day is no good when you need a shower at 10:00 PM. No photos yet, but I've been building an insulated box to hold the stainless steel cylinder. The cylinder fits into a sleeve made from layers of Reflectix insulation and a Harbor Freight wool blanket. The whole affair lays in the foam insulated box. Preliminary tests show I should have almost boiling hot water for a shower the next morning.
Already have a design for another unit. Should boil five gallons of water, cook a pot roast, and bake 33 loaves of bread all at once (no, I have no desire to bake 33 loaves of bread...ever!). The larger unit should cost less than $75 and have all season, all weather durability.
-Rick
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