seasonal solar hot water

mountainmoma's picture

There are a couple simple ways, a coiled hose in the sun is a good one. I have been back to using my camping Solar shower ( a non-sustainable plastic bag with hose) it is ripping at the handle area, it likely was never made for day to day use.... Before they break, if you see on at a garage sale, you can hang up next to the kitchen sink to do dishes, or hang off of the shower head arm in the shower. So, it is portable and cheap or free to get hot water. SInce mine is ripping, and for the moment, due to COVID, no-one is dropping by my yard, so I just leaned it againt the top deck step and did a "camp" wash off/shower below it on the steps. It was actually realy nice to do such business outside in the sun ! The water was almost too hot. Last night, I hung it next to the kitchen sink to do dishes with hot water, will get a photo tonight ( yesterday I dropped this phone into a bucket of water, so had no way to take photos).

I am practicing my extreme resource useages again right now, one for the practice. And 2, because I am one of the people who has suffered an extreme income drop due to COVID lockdowns. SO, I cancelled trash service, water heater may stay turned off, and I may just turn off the pressure pump, and I am being more vigilant on the well pump time of use. Need to go clean the filter so it doesnt work so hard too. Powering down a little is good practice. Large garden is in.

I would think that there should be a sustainable way to heat water outside and bring in -- maybe a plywood box with glass on top with a covered bucket of water inside, like a ashcan, they have handles and lids, an example, but buy it local https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00QFHEVAC?tag=duckduckgo-ffab-20&linkCode=osi.... Then it could be carried in and used in the bathroom or kitchen sink.

Here is an example of a basic seasonal solar shower outdoors in a yard, this guys have lots of low impact ideas https://www.low-carbonlife.org/post/solar-shower-blues

And that is why I have the idea that a smaller version, where you take the top off, with the ash bucket inside, would allow summer hot water to be brought inside

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Sweet Tatorman's picture

This is a good topic. Various implementations of this are limited only by one's creativity.

mountainmoma's picture

Hmm, I wonder if I can boil hot water in my sun oven and put in a thermos ? How power down in the summer can one go..... but I must have my morning tea !

mountainmoma's picture

A handy nail in the right spot

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David Trammel's picture

I saw a set up where the person's kitchen was on the South facing of their home. They had an small exterior tank, painted black attached to the wall over their kitchen window, with an incoming water line. Then an exit line that entered the wall and came out inside above the sink which supplied solar heated water for washing. If you could rig up a valve, which allowed you to fill the tank from the inside, you could top it off after you used the water, without diluting the hot water already in the tank.

Of course that requires a bit of plumbing experience. To the title of my post, I would set a larger flexible shower bag on a two wheel furniture dolly. Set it high enough to get a bucket under it. Maybe even a concrete brick on the bottom for weight to stabilize it. That way you could move the whole arrangement around to get the best Sun as the day progressed.

I definitely think we could go to a much lower water amount with showers and dish washing. I know of a guy who set up one of those 2-3 gallon hand sprayers on his patio, to use for a shower. He's fill it, then pump it up for pressure to use. Said you could get quite wet with just a little water. Of course his patio was unheated in the Winter so it made for a quick shower.

I'll get in and turn all the photos you posted today too.

mountainmoma's picture

Camping style, the water was very hot, least dirty and greasy to most -- glassware first, then rinsed, etc...pots last, poured into pots, one after the other at the end. Dishes were rinsed with cold

Hot or warm water is nice first because it is more pleasant, second as it helps soak off stuff and cut grease. We dont need much of it. Last night I washed dishes with the water I cooked the pasta in.

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mountainmoma's picture

Here is what I washed in that pot of hot, soapy water. The enamaled pot on the drying rack is not the one I had the dishwater in, it is a pot I cooked potato salad in the solar cooker in earlier in the week, and stored it in the fridge in it, finished that off tonight, it was very oily pot.

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