DIY Solar Thermal Water Heater! - COPPER PIPE Solar Water Heater! - Easy DIY (full Instr.) 150F+
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- Опубликовано: 27 авг 2024
- DIY Solar Thermal Water Heater. Homemade "COPPER PIPE" Solar Water Heater! Easy DIY. video includes full instructions on how to build it (w/materials list). super hot water fast. reaches temps at or above 150F with air temps from high 40's to low 50's. a few features of the panel: full 1/2" hard copper pipe (type L). hooks to a standard water tap/garden hose. slim portable design (at only 2" thick) and is very rugged and durable (built with 2x2's and 1/2" plywood). multiple panels can be hooked together for additional capacity and extras can be easily added; water flow valves, temp sensors, timers etc... couple of final thoughts. make sure to use type L copper (rated 0-400F 986psi). other choice is type M (only rated 100-150F) and will not hold up to temperature extremes. the smaller "internal board" is very important to the design - for a few reasons. 1.) it allows for the pipe to lay essentially flat inside of collector (because all the connection points are up in the air). 2.) it holds the pipe at the right height so it enters and exits thru the 3/4" hole in the 2x2. 3.) it allows for the pipe to easily be removed from the collector (if extra work needs to be done on any of the solder joints - re-solder etc.) btw if you've never soldered pipe before - it's very easy to learn. just watch a couple of youtube vids on it and practice a few connections on a small or scrap piece before starting project. lastly, to secure the glass into the frame, just use a bead of silicone caulk around the edge and drop the glass in. songs are from youtubes "copyright free" library. song titles...hemispheres and mumbai effect
This build brings back memories, my step father had us building these in 1982-85 as a side business. Very similar design, with it's primary role as a pre-heater for an actual hot water heater. We used a full sheet of plywood (4x8) copper pipes with aluminum fins soldered on, a bit of insulation below the pipes, matt black and capped with a sealed plexiglass top. At our house it was mated with a simple hutch batch heater before going into the hot water heater. Spring to fall we had some seriously hot water... winter cut down our gas heating needs to almost nothing... only really needed gas on snowy/cloudy days. Keep up the experimentation!
@DesertSun, I've been working as a plumbing/heating engineer for forty years, I like to think I know what i'm talking about, just like to say you made a great job of that, well put together and well explained, Best from the UK
When soldering, the molten solder will flow toward the hotter metal. So, you should direct your torch where the inside pipe ends, closer to the L in elbows. Also, a damp terry cloth rag can be used to quickly wipe molten solder from the joint making a much cleaner job.
I've seen something like this using PVC pipe (sched 40) painted black. I love this idea, especially the portability. I gotta build one for my fifth wheel. Thank you so much for your video!
Great start, would put insulation behind, thin copper sheet, then your copper pipe. Insulate sides and you have perfect water heater. Great idea and good job.
love the build thanks for sharing. one thing i did notice that may add more heating capacity. instead of 16 copper 90's you could have used 8 90's and 8 street 90's. this would also save you time cutting the smaller 1" pieces. street fittings have 1 of the 2 ends the same size as piping. it will keep the rows closer together and allow more passes through the same space. thanks for sharing Phill
hi there and thanks. i actually experimented with that idea first (using an elbow connected to a "street elbow"). i thought one end of a street-elbow was the same diameter as the pipe too but it wasn't, it's a bit smaller. the result was the "street elbows" fit too loosely inside of the "regular elbows" making it impossible to (properly) solder the two of them together.
I found the same. Why are street 90's made smaller than copper pipe... I tried using them, and spent an hour slopping on as much solder as I could to 7 different joints to no avail... I don't know what the purpose of street 90's are since you can't solder the street end to be water/air tight being too loose/small.
I'm not sure that more pipes bunched together will bear more BTU's but as for the complaint below about the difficulty of soldering street elbows I agree, been there done that. If you pre-tin the male part of the elbow and the inside of the regular elbow too for good measure, problem solved. Yes it does take longer but where plumbing repairs call for a street elbow I keep using them, sometimes without pre-tinning, just a good amount of care in cleaning/aplying solder and heating evenly.
Nice work. Very clean looking. Try a pipe bender to reduce some of your soldering. The bends will be wider so overlap two systems in a taller box. Add a dual connector on your external pipe ends. Thanks for the upload. Good job.
Good project with very good construction but, no real performance data. If you were to circulate the heated water in a 5 litre (1 gall) container and measure the temperature over time this would allow a closer idea of efficiency.
I have 22 panels built very similar to yours but much larger each 60" by 18" and connected through 12 volt solenoid valves to allow any combination of series or parallel connection depending on the time of year (angle of the sun)
My panels have the tubes soldered onto a copper sheet backing made from old copper water cylinders, cut and flattened then blackened and these sit on 4 inch fibreglass insulation all around.
The choice of glass is also an important point but I think I've said enough !!
Thanks for the posting and thanks to all those who have added comments
Solar saves money.
Yes apart from being educational it will inform any further projects of the best way to construct the panels.
Good information saves time and money.
I made similar collectors about 15 years ago. With my knees I gave one with two throats and one with one throat and the other with the side. That's how I got into the construction made of sheet metal and insulation (200 x 100 mm) about 54 m of Cu 15 tube. This made the capacity reach the maximum.
Great video.
Clean work.
If you have added a metal sheet between the wooden base and the copper pipes you would get much better results.
I build several panels like that,
Thanks for sharing.
Used, Type 11 radiator facing backwards, will have two possible inlet valves and two possible outlet valves.
Double glazed one way mirror to create more heat.
If you want to improve the design, make sure you put reflexing material behind the pipes, not black paint, then, do not use copper fixation, they are dissipating heat in the wood ... and use a double glass, to avoid heat transfer via the glass. a vacuum double layer glass would be the best. You want to insolate the side and back if you plan to use this during the winter, simple glass fiber insolation would do
At least 4 inches 100mm of insulating material is needed behind the tube support. This will ensure that no heat is lost to the plywood backing, as the plywood will heat up to the ambient temperature of the cabinet. Also affix silver reflective backing (cooking foil) to the plywood base and spray all black.
Two layers of glass will only reduce reflectivity by 3-4 % unless they are vacuum or argon filled double glazed units.
In practice we use single glass (freely available) and increase the number of panels.
Our panels are built the same as described using 15mm thin wall copper, system is pumped. 12 panels 24 inches by 90 inches provide more than enough hot water during the winter and excess during the summer is used to heat the swimming pool.
Our practice is absorb, insulate, and reflect little. Always open to constructive comment
id say use a fresnel lens aiming a weak focal point (so its not too strong ) at a coil series of pipes with a half pipe stainless steel backplate behind them, itll reach 2000c easily and the water would be boiling !
Love this idea. Thanks for posting.
This is useful to heat up a jacuzzi!
Fill the copper pipes with gallium have a heat exchange coil in a insulated cistern to keep your water hot.
maybe a double pane glass window can be incorporated into the design to improve efficiency
No one seems to use a collector backing plate anymore. Even scrap metal roofing behind the copper and all painted F black (or F dark green even better) would dramatically increase efficiency. Use copper plate and solder pipes to it if you can afford it.
Have you experimented with or researched pipes thickness or distance between pipes? The smaller the diameter and the lower the water flow the higher the output temperature would be, no? I'm also thinking of putting sheet metal as the bottom to absorb sunlight and increase the inside temperature. Great idea!
That's a great idea.
You can simply use a domestic single panelled central heating radiator, with a bottom cold water inflow feed, and a top hot water out flow feed.
Just paint the radiator panel matt black, fit a bottom 15mm left hand cold inflow pipe, and fit a top 15mm hot out flow pipe...
You could fill those pipes up with sand and bend them to that shape without using joints and solder.
do this as a stovepipe heater, pass the copper thru the center of the stovepipe, use dry white sand inside the stovepipes, which create thermal mass, amd add a thermoelectic cells and a 12 v battery to it to it, and you can create a closed loop system with antifreeze to heat the water in summer and winter to run a solar refrigerator that never uses grid power
How to delete Kodi
Joe Blow Where is your brilliant design?
To cover all of the bases, Have enough storage to handle the heat, also a temp. actuated shade for when it gets excessive temp could be a good idea
I done something similar shape in a gas bottle burner......
Except I used a " male female elbow", and a female female. Result was a much tighter bend.
If I could upload photos here id show you.
Bravo! Wonderful! Perfect! True! I want one too! :)
I’m a plumber and can verify that this works
This style is nice, but there is less linear distance of copper to do the work of water heating than a 50 foot coil of copper tubing in a coil shape. While coiled copper tubing can be a bit challenging to work you can use a come a long, chain hoist, ratchet hoise, etc to pull the copper coil to straighten it then use a Swagelok manual tubing benders that will allow you to put a perfectly smooth 180 degree bends/returns in 1/2" soft copper coil to avoid all the solder connections and risk of leaks.
Congratulations! Nice project!
Antes de poner las abrazaderas, es mejor probar afuera la soldadura que no tenga filtración de agua . Lo ideal sería que esa agua caliente , se almacene en un tanque sobre el tejado.
Coil would put the pipe next to itself ... No wasted space and more length of pipe in the same framework ... More heat collected ... This design would benefit from walls between the runs to direct the heated air ... Making it a water and air heater with a thermostat switch and low voltage fan ... Maybe solar powered ...
James Witte where is your design?
Amazing... I will build one for summer to warm up my 16000 l swimming pool. Hope it will work. Thank U mate.
CafeDelMar98 use adapters to run a hose from your pool’s water inlet to the solar heater and a water hose adapter out. As your pool circulates it’s water it pumps some of it through your solar heater.
Did you do this and did it work well? I’m currently in the process of doing one myself.
Cheers
how would you stop overheating though since this is on the roof? what would prevent the water from boiling inside the circuit. relief valve? say im not using the water, out and away how would one prevent the system from over pressurizing. a pressure tank could only do so much
A below ground thermal mass storage tank as in intermediate path. Insulate a concrete box and install a copper coil. Fill the box with silica sand and crushed lava rock. This will act as a thermal storage battery that will hold heat for the evening and offset the temperature during the day.
Superb project ; keep up the good job ; good luck buddy !
Thanks, will do!
With all that copper you should make some heat pipes using acetone to improve your heat gain.
Can you do a review of the many solar heaters you have made and tell us which are the best ones to make and why?
this!!!!!
das hasguns
The one that works for you in your environment.
if you want more heat put aluminium foil under your pipes and uses a one way mirror instead of glass.light goes in the box and bounces back and forth making way more heat
Double glazed one way mirror?
Just wondering if it might be better to have a silver backing to reflect heat onto the pipework and just paint the pipes black to absorb the heat? (just a thought?)
20 oz vacumn tubes are $10 each got to buy 10 of them though but they work. 45 min in the sun they boil water if you use a collector 15 min in the sun they are fragile though.
Wanna try this this winter.. to save from water heater..
I'm looking to heat up the ground of a greenhouse, about 1000 sq feet. I'm wondering how big should my thermal water heater be. Do you think it'd work in the winter when the sun is weaker?
hi. yes, these definitely work in winter too, just not as strong as in the summer. i couldn't say how big the unit should be, that will most likely take some experimenting.
great job for this video, thank you for sharing this DIY..
amazing.. I will be making this my next project..
If you would use a street L at each end you would not need the 1 inch connector piece. Pipes would be closer together so you could get in more runs in the same area.
hi there. yes i tried that first, that but that type of elbow was too big for the pipe. they were 1/2" street elbows but they didn't fit. it's a mystery to this day.
La tubería de cobre, debería ir soldada sobre una chapa metálica pintada en color negro.
sure it gets up to 150 F, but what temperature does it sustain at constant flow?
I use this for above ground pool. At a peak I get around 66° - 69° C. That's a momentary peak when water stays in it for 30min at full sun. Constant flow I'm lucky to get 32° C. After 2 days I brought a 18' round pool (28,000 L) water temp by about 3° C.
Very cool...
thanks
very hot.. water
How about using a large piece of graphite enclosed with in/ outlet pipes for the water?
Great job.
It's crossed my mind to build something like this but larger scale, wonder if it would get hot enough in winter to help heat the house. Would be kinda a pain having to keep taking the snow off it though.
Red Squirrel I made one once but as a closed loop system feeding into a storage tank that had a built in radiator, commonly used for radiator heating. Instead of water I filled it with plumbers antifreeze. It wasn’t very efficient. In the dead of cold winter nights it would suck heat from the tank. It worked well in the summer. There was always enough latent heat in the system that I didn’t need to work about the snow. It was warm enough that the snow melted off.
What kind of flow rate do you get at the 150+ degrees? Looking at doing up one for my pool.
Nice work
So help me out here. If I had two of these, how long would it take to heat a 10,000 gallon pool that starts out at 70 degrees and get it up to 80 degrees?
Quick calculator says 168 hours - 1 week ;_)
this would work better if you just had black pipes with a half round mirror behind them? also ad in a mirror satellite dish or a fresnel lense? ;) pump this into your house and or Beyond... make steam power generation?? let me know when you complete that build ;)
Instead of mounting on wood it will be more efficient to fit sheet metal as a backing sheet
Copper pipe is a great choice for a little DIY project, but the bigger you go the more uneconomic copper becomes, there are way cheaper, less laborious ways to do this.
Hello Desert Sun. Out of all your builds, which Solar Water Heating Design is the most Efficient/Effective? Pex or Copper? Thanks For Your Time: Shawn
Thanx found your video most helpful
hi and thanks ✔
Brilliant 😃
thanks!
I'm planning on buying flat panel collectors since I'm unable to build a panel like you have. My question is what type of circulation pump and sensor would I need to tie into a hot water tank.
Good information sir.
I would like to utilize this type of system to heat the ground in my greenhouse. I live in CO at 9000' and have a simple 12 X 7 space that requires heat at night/early AM as we have only 26 frost free days. I use a ceramic space heater, but it's expensive. I am thinking about putting in a few hundred feet of 1/2" pex water tubing under the beds, but think I will need a slow inline pump that I can put on a timer to turn off at night. Heat the ground during the day and let that carry some heat over thru the night. I'm thinking 2'-6" pipe length in the solar box and a pump inside the greenhouse. Any thoughts or suggestions for info or materials? I can only find 3/4" ac pumps that are more than I want to pay. Thanks
We recently built a system for a friends greenhouse using a panel as described above 24 inches square.
The beds were dug out and hollow concrete blocks laid 8 inches below the surface. 15mm PEX tubes were threaded through the block, back and forth.
This enabled the temperature to stabilise from day to night so as to have a steady soil temperature
A cheap solar panel provided 12 Volt to power a windscreen washer pump which used a simple thermostat to turn the system off at night and a non return valve was fitted in the line to ensure that the heat from the soil did not feed back to the solar panel at night..
It has worked well for 5 years and cost very little. Hope this helps
+George Styer please let me know how that system worked out
Hello Lorraine, In central France we are approaching summer and this year a great effort will be made to do some practical tests on the panels that we have at the moment. Just getting hot water id OK but I need to be more disciplined and gather data, as a retired engineer this demanded of me.
Once I can work out how to do a video I will post it, and I thank you for your contact. I will say this...as a rough...from March to October I never use other means of heating water other than the panels.
That looks like 20 feet of pipe total. I get that the water will heat up if it just sits in the pipe for a while (similar to my garden hose when I'm not using it) if you were to circulate pool water say 80 degrees what will the output be after running continuous? I'm looking to build three 16"x75" panels on top of my fence but gonna try to get at least 60' of pipe per panel. Hope this works :-)
Hi, thx for the video.
I would like to know, why you dont backed the pipe with metal slats like the other video?
Was there much difference in performance from the copper coil project and the cut pipe project. Want to simplify the build.
Va multumesc de informatie o sa in cerc sa fac si eu lafel ca dumneavoastra
hi. i'm glad you liked the video ✔🙂
Wouldn’t the solder melt at high temp ? Great effort though
hi. the solder melts at the temperature of a torch but it's totally fine to use in a solar water heater or solar collector. they don't get anywhere near hot enough to melt solder. 🙂🔥
Would an old air conditioning unit work instead.
why not take annealed copper so no elbow no solder?
What black paint did you use on the wood and copper, and do you need to clean the copper first before spraying and with what
hi. i used a standard flat black paint. nothing fancy. you could use a primer paint combo if you wanted too. try to get the blackest paint you can. the blacker the better
@@desertsun02 Thank you very much
Why can't you just make a coil in a glass instead of wasting your time joining pipes.
Because its his time, his project, not yours.
@@cantrememberusername 😅😅😅
@@cantrememberusername you are a such $%##$%
@@dougthegreat1808 because? haha, dont get triggered, the answer was obvious, u dont like what you see, you do your own video and upload it.
@@cantrememberusername thank you for your permission.......
could you use 10mm Push Fit Barrier Pipe Coil instead of copper or just a hose pipe and paint it black
So, how many gal. Of hot water will that produce? And will it heat enough to b continuous?
Wonderful idea beautiful execution attention to detail just wondering if you were to put a reflective background say a mirror or other very shiny material would that increase Heat game or would not that be worth changing the system you already have I have hydronic Heat this would definitely be a big boost used as a preheater
This model is enough to warm it from square meters?
Why you paint it black? It doesn't get hot enough being copper?
it will get hot even if you don't paint it black but painting it helps absorb the sun so it's heat's the water much better.
I have bought a similar water solar panel to assist with the heating of my hot tub but my worry is that the chlorine running through the copper will weaken the copper as chlorine reacts with copper I believe or am I worrying for nothing lol
super
How do you secure the glass?
i like to use silicone caulk. i typically use the type that is 100% silicone. works great.
@desartSun. I have a 20,000 gallon pool. How many of these solar heaters would I need. ? Thanks in advance
Looking to add something like this to the roof of a camper van. Anyone with any thoughts on alterations to this concept that could help me accomplish this?
What kind of transfer pump would work, say a small 330gph pump is enough to circulate the water?
hi. i'd say that's just about right
How much more heat do you get if you use BLACK plastic flex piping instead of copper? You can buy 300 feet at Lowes for $93.
hi. black plastic pipe won't get as hot as the copper *but it will work. the other issue with plastic is it only lasts a few years tops. it's cheaper though, so if you don't need the water too hot and only need the collector for a couple of years it may be worth it.
Very nice 👍. I mean who gives this video a thumbs down, seriously 😂.
Any kind of glass or it is special kind of glass please reply thanks
Best regards
Saeed China
it's just regular glass.
How hot does t get on a cloudy day? Great job by the way.
hi there and thanks. if it's high thin clouds it will still work pretty good, but if it's overcast you'll only get cold water that day...
Hello , how to keep the hot water for the use at night when the is no sun around ?
Kumar Dabeechurn you can buy a big electric boiler and make connection to panel,when you need more hot water the electric resistance will start,if not just dont plug it
For more efficiently use a glass or plexiglass case and introduce metan gas
Has anyone tried to connect this system to a pump to cycle the water from the pool, through the copper tubing, and then back into the pool? I am really wanting to try a solar powered pump so I can tuck all this stuff at the farthest end of the pool, which happens to also be farthest away from my power source. Any experiences to share? I am looking at trying the Solariver Solar Water Pump Kit - 360+GPH Submersible Pump with Adjustable Flow, 20 Watt Solar Panel (with maybe a marine battery backup). The adjustable flow helps reassure me I won't burnout the pump by pushing too much water into the smaller 1/2" copper tubing, but I am equally concerned it won't have enough push to get the water through (I plan to have 2 or 3 sets of tubing). Any experiences anyone can share?
지금하는 용접이 어떤 용접인가요?
동파이프 용접하는데 납땜을 하는 느낌?
From where i will get copper wire.
Looks like a lot of copper
John Canivan Here he is....the guy with insight....a lot of copper....yes indeed.....a lot of copper
Can you make me portable heater for my room areas
14:34 / 14:34
DIY Solar Thermal Water Heater! - COPPER PIPE Solar Water Heater! - Easy DIY (full Instr.) 150F+
조회수 728,655회 2016. 12. 6.
2.8천
296
desertsun02
구독자 24.1만명
DIY Solar Thermal Water Heater. Homemade "COPPER PIPE" Solar Water Heater! Easy DIY. video includes full instructions on how to build it (w/materials list). super hot water fast. reaches temps at or above 150F with air temps from high 40's to low 50's. a few features of the panel: full 1/2" hard copper pipe (type L). hooks to a standard water tap/garden hose. slim portable design (at only 2" thick) and is very rugged and durable (built with 2x2's and 1/2" plywood). multiple panels can be hooked together for additional capacity and extras can be easily added; water flow valves, temp sensors, timers etc... couple of final thoughts. make sure to use type L copper (rated 0-400F 986psi). other choice is type M (only rated 100-150F) and will not hold up to temperature extremes. the smaller "internal board" is very important to the design - for a few reasons. 1.) it allows for the pipe to lay essentially flat inside of collector (because all the connection points are up in the air). 2.) it holds the pipe at the right height so it enters and exits thru the 3/4" hole in the 2x2. 3.) it allows for the pipe to easily be removed from the collector (if extra work needs to be done on any of the solder joints - re-solder etc.) btw if you've never soldered pipe before - it's very easy to learn. just watch a couple of youtube vids on it and practice a few connections on a small or scrap piece before starting project. lastly, to secure the glass into the frame, just use a bead of silicone caulk around the edge and drop the glass in. songs are from youtubes "copyright free" library. song titles...hemispheres and mumbai effect
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put aluminum inside instead of black? is it not as good? think of the sun reflection
Buildings imploded
what about its flow rate?
Hi will a salt water pool effect a copper self made solar panel please den
What kind of paint did u use?
hi there. i just used a general purpose flat black spray paint.
what this project cost you..???
What type of solder do you use?
hi. i use "silver solder". (no lead in it)
How long can you leave the water running before it cools down?
l weel make this