DIY Solar Water Heater! - Solar Thermal COPPER COIL Water Heater! - Easy DIY (Full instr.) 170F

DIY Solar Water Heater. A Homemade "flat panel" COPPER COIL Solar Water Heater. Easy DIY. Full Instructions. super hot temps (sustained at 165F+). fast hot water. no electricity needed. easily hooks up to standard water tap/garden hose. reaches temps well over 150F (water pasteurization temp) so it works to clear/kill any pathogens (if a non-municipal source is used). it's super portable so it's good for camping/off-grid/emergency as well as everyday use. couple of notes: water flow rate verified with a measuring cup and a stopwatch. (roughly 1 oz. of hot water every 1 to 1.5 seconds and scaled up - one gallon every 2-3 minutes or 20-30 gallons per hour). about the copper tubing: a 50 foot roll of tubing is much cheaper than smaller rolls connected. *only $24.95 for 50 ft (but $17 for a 20 ft roll and $10 for a 10 ft roll). the glass is just standard window glass and the paint is flat black. it's thin flat design allows it to be easily stored in a closet, under the bed etc... *"seal it" according to your climate conditions and whether you plan to leave it outside.
UPDATE: (06/01/2018)… if interested, here’s a youtube video link to my other (most current) copper coil water heater. It’s of a similar design but is lined with aluminum sheeting and uses larger diameter coil. • DIY Solar Water Heater...

[@grahamsmith5780]

I'm so glad you showed me how to make this, quite the work of art!

[@independentcontractor1633]

Awesome! Thank you! Been noodling putting together an off grid shower, this is the main component! Thanks again!

[@metroplexchl]

I LOVE LOVE LOVE your format of showing a quick snippet of the conclusion up front and then slow down to show the build. Perfect! May want to read an old book called "Direct Use of the Sun's Energy" by Farrington (1964) Very cool stuff. He shows a good idea where one would have the coils or tubing sitting atop a large metal plate that conducts and radiates heat. Brilliant.

[@MYTOYMAKERZ]

Nice video. I have been using this system for at least 15 years now. But I have 3 boxes each 2 by 6 feet that help heat my cabin in the winter time here in Alaska as long as of course we have sun light which can be a challenge. But the 4 months during spring - summer the boxes give us all the hot water we can use. I ran my copper tubing left to right and of course much larger dia. At 1/2" dia. Plus my boxes are 6 inches deep to cap all the heat possible. I am always playing around with stuff like this living off the grid. I also have 3 wind mills that are always spinning - near the ocean at least 15 - 35 mph winds to keep my batteries charged along with solar so we live a very comfortable life style free once I pay for materials. Thank You

[@kevinjackson4464]

Sounds great!

[@steveholder5488]

K-9 COOPER

[@MrGlorybe]

You are lucky that far north. You can get free heat and also free cold. Just leave the fridge out on the porch and don't bother to plug it in.

[@alanbrown397]

Instead of using a glass front, have you thought about using double-walled lexan sheeting? This would insulate against heat radiation overnight and trap more heat in daytime. It's not as if the thing needs to be optically clear.... How do you capture for winter heat? Is that an air-based heatbox or do you heat water and use a radiator? if the former, do you have a mesh installed?

[@MrGlorybe]

Lexan would melt and stretch under this kind of use. To give you some idea we have had cars left with their windows closed in Florida in which the steering wheels actually melted and drooped. And our cars are not even designed to be heat traps.

[@mztwixed]

Your projects are so very helpful and needed. Thank you so very much. Your family is blessed to have you, as are we. Great video.

[@freddymclain]

did the same thing in '73 with four truck radiators connected with hoses and mounted on a flat panel painted black and glazed with used windows. It was cheap and provided free hot outdoor showers.

[@mutiur7396]

How old are u now

[@BrassLock]

Thanks for these two great demonstration & instruction videos comparing poly pipe with copper tube. Now we really have the answers we need for cheap hot water 😀

[@trevordeane4668]

What a brilliant, compact, portable, and economical way of storing the Suns thermal energy! Your video is very inspiring, well done!

[@desertsun02]

Thank you very much!

[@sarahmangone7785]

Thank you! I'll be using this in my pool solar heating system.

[@erichawkins3915]

I built such a SWH device like this in 1991, but used a Pex Pipe in Black from Isral with 100 meter x 16mm in a M2 box sealed with K glass, worked fantastic when i tested it while in Cyprus from 1994 to 1998

[@drestanmiller6716]

Thanks - as soon as I get the needed parts together (luckily most seem 2 b lying around) will try it - VERY interesting approach

[@AnneAndersonFoxiepaws]

Thank you for an informative, easy to follow tutorial on how to simply heat water. I really don't know where I would be if it wasn't for the few people like you who generously share stuff like this. This will be passed on to my nephew and my younger son who are helping me build my off grid cabin. I believe that stuff like this should be preserved for future generations (who knows when Sunspot activity will leave us back in the dark ages and knowledge such as yours could mean the difference between cutting tons of wood to get hot water or having a setup like yours which is always keeping the water warm if not hot. I am subscribing to see what else you have and when (this awful gale force winds thing has been going on for three years now, despite this we are making headway and have a road laid in so ww don't have to hike through the forest lol. I promise to put up a video and to pass on anything I learn during my build.

[@solarwaterheatermachinery]

We usually use Heat Pipe collector with Evacuated Tube to heat water. Then we integrated with Pressured Tank.

[@TC-er5xy]

I had an uncle who built a system larger than yours (same idea) and mounted it on top of his garage. He ran the tube of heated water into his pool - he had 90+ degrees of in his pool in winter! Good job.

[@MeAncient]

T C , What part of the U.S. did your uncle live? (Assuming he lived in the U.S.) I'm trying to get ideas for my pool where I live in East Tennessee at about 1,000 feet above sea level. Do you recall how big his system was? Tks!

[@TC-er5xy]

@@MeAncient He lived in Fresno, CA.I don't know the elevation there, but I don't think it matters that much. It's about using the sun & capturing as much of the reflection as possible.

[@MeAncient]

@@TC-er5xy Tks!!

[@quiksilver1j]

@@MeAncient you will need a pool cover to keep the water hot or you will loose all your heat... It's too cold in Tennessee not to use a cover

[@harrrytoool1391]

Great job. Fantastic for a Campervan, Camping trip etc. Portable modular cool.

[@howtosavedishwasher7188]

thank you for sharing this video, this DIY is awesomely easy to follow.. great job..

[@frhythms]

So cool ! And it is visually pleasing, too !

[@janjansz7513]

Thank you for sharing. I'm in Indonesia (7°south) these ideas can have great use.

[@MeyersCTR]

I liked it. Easy to watch and informative.

[@galaxywolf4895]

Good idea, but paint the copper tubing flat black, have it raised up and put a reflective layer below. They do have a new paint out called Vantablack that absorbs around 99% of light which should help.

[@itjunkmail]

This is awesome I instantly started thinking how I could take advantage of something like this and my first idea was to use this to pre heat the water in to an electrical water heater on a hot day the thing would barely need to work at all

[@hollickrichard]

Very nice design especially like the use of off the shelf products less cutting less fuss, standard coil, standard fittings nothing overly complex nicely done that man just wish I had your sun to run it.....

[@NTSRFR4]

I haven't read all of the comments, and what not but I thought that I would throw in the fact that I have used a 50 roll of 1/2" black water line just laying out in the sun for a couple of hours to produce 117 degrees. I always wanted to go further with it, but never have been able to get back to it. I ultimately used that roll of water line to make a cold water machine out of an old obsolete Coke machine though. I just gutted all of the unnecessary stuff inside and kept the cooling part of it and put the roll of pipe inside with a line coming in and going out. That was some COOOLD water coming out and was very useful at work during the summer heat.

[@mazwt44]

Nice project, nothing fancy, but works !!!

[@saifawan2897]

Thank u you for given solar Water Heater manufacturing.Yours projects are so good for student those studding Graduate Engineering

[@donnafield2616]

that is awesome!!!!!thank you for sharing!!!!!! great presentation!!!!!!

[@lessenelectricityfor]

another awesome video, thanks for always posting informative and useful videos.. keep on posting..

[@chydedelaplace8947]

Beautiful, thank you!

[@iwantosavemoney]

this is one way to go about it for sure I like the idea for sure. I think if I was going to build one I would build it in a metal box with insulation. to add to the durability and might make it a little more efficient. good job

[@piotrekj.1277]

You make the best films :) Thanks ;)

[@harshadmistry1145]

Fantastics ideas. Mindly wonderful created. I thanks lots off

[@obduliocerceno4984]

So practical!! Thankyou from Panamá 🇵🇦

[@desertsun02]

you're so welcome 😎

[@kosm3tik]

Very useful Thanks for the video. bless

[@longhairmullet]

Pretty cleaver. Great DIY vid clearly stated steps for us beginners. Love reading the comments people have great ideas and new counter inventions off your design.

[@hughjaanus6680]

Clever not cleaver.

[@chrisbrangers9443]

I did this with a black garden hose worked great and cheap

[@brianmarshall7214]

I recently made a heater from black plastic pipe here in Thailand, as they only use cold water for washing dishes. Something you need to be very mindful of, is the pressure build up if both end are sealed. I left my inlet to the sink open to avoid any pressure problems.

[@fourdayhomestead2839]

Cool. It's on my project list. Heat water & supliment heat for out building/cabin. ☕ cheers.

[@cybpy]

This one is very COOL. Thanks.

[@wagnersantana_]

Good job... I love to make this things at home. Congractulations about this video.

[@stevenbibeau1515]

Nice job, Really simple Really reliable Would be great for a campsite.

[@Foxfire-mw5ng]

This is by far one of the easiest hot water panel builds I have seen. My questions are 1. How big is your storage tank? Must have to be large as the volume isn't that much. I would think that using 1/2" copper tubing would drop the water temp a little, which would be ok, and dramatically increase your volume ability. It also appears, that as hot as the water is coming out, a person could use this panel or a series of panels for a radiant heat system in the home or shop. Your thoughts.

[@Simon67316]

Great build. You could have a insulated water tank in a convenient shape to fit your van or whatever and store the hot water for use at night.

[@dorinka6357]

Thank you for sharing... Love your shared ideas and knowledge through videos. Great work!

[@desertsun02]

thanks much ✔😎

[@EBTools]

Wow, good project about solar heating

[@alankelso2246]

I was impressed by the video; well made, well explained with good DIY instructions. I read all the comments and a lot were sold on the idea of a reflector but the way I see it a certain amount of sunlight would be reflected back out of the glass front. Instead, a metal back-plate of aluminium flashing also painted black would get hooter than the plywood backing. This would increase the internal air-temperature and heat more water. My only other point is that because of the spiral design the water would not passively flow as it would if the pipes were vertically oriented. I realize this would call for soldered joints and a lot more expertise and labor and would add to the possibility of leaks. I wonder what would be the minimum radius that copper tubing could be bent into using a bending kit. I used to at one time bend brake pipes using a kit like this. I assume they are available in various sizes. Any thoughts?

[@energysavingheatings]

great job, this video is awesome.. great project too.. please keep posting videos..

[@Hippiecat67]

I really like this design and it looks simple enough for people to build. Do you put wooden stops on top of the glass to keep it from falling out or does the sealant for weather proofing keep the glass in place?Thank you for such an easy to follow video.

[@conniecannon2319]

I love this idea !!

[@stormytrails]

Whoops! This guy is doin' it right!

[@Caturdepok]

my inspiration...thanks for your video..

[@brucewayne-cave]

Great Job !

[@benjoseph8387]

I like my idea of a black tank of water with either air pressurized or gravity fed...but it does need bleach cleaning (or added) now and then. Nice video demo👍

[@dunkanmccleud5613]

Fantastic amigo ! I bilding one now !!saludos desde MEXOCO TENOCHTITLAN cemter of the UNIVERSE!!!

[@stayenergyefficients]

this is great video, thanks for sharing your video to us.. have a great day..

[@rolloverriderpgr]

My grandparents bought a home in Coral Gables, FL just after WWII It was built with a 15 gallon water heater/ tank with a small 3'x3' solar collector panel. It would give grand dad his after work shower and grandmother water for washing the dishes after dinner. She took her shower in the middle of the day to replenish the tank as she didn't use hot water until dinner. But it worked for half of the Gables back then.

[@desertsun02]

very cool! - thanks for sharing

[@yarpos]

nice little project, well done

[@giosource08]

Just curious on how you would control the temperature, remember that we usually set up the heaters around 120 F to avoid scalding, I found this same set up in older building roofs for the same purpose but they compliment them with mixing and control valves.

[@carlvickers1947]

Great job... I am always amazed at the comments on how to do it better by people that most likely have never done anything like it at all... Great little heater....

[@imtiazhussain5027]

75 degree Celsius really not bad. Excellent job. Good result. I m planning to build solar water heater and your idea inspired me. Thanks from Pakistan

[@desertsun02]

awesome and thank you!

[@patazertyui]

Just paint your tube in black and the energy harvesting efficiency of your heater will double. (In fact probably more than double). Edit : I saw the end or jour video, the icon you put is a bit misleading. Nice project ! You can also strongly increase the efficency by adding some 45+° mirror on each side of your frame. Estimated gain with 4 mirrors, about 3 times more heat harvested than with only the tube.

[@johnlarkin9594]

Hi Patazertyul...not understanding the mirror addition, how does adding the 4 strips of affect the heat. Surely the mirror reflects the energy back, or do you put the mirrors in back to front.? Southampton UK

[@spike2794]

Awesome job!!!!

[@themusicneedsyou]

That's Awesome!!!

[@naveensharma7929]

Anyways ur design is awesome... Working on the same stuff ✌️👍

[@nickd3251]

This is awesome. I'm building it this weekend to use as a pool heater this summer. Can you please tell me how thick the 20x20 wood is that you zip tie the copper pipe to? Also what are the lengths of the square dowels and what is the thickness of the glass? Thanks!

[@susanfarley6433]

About 35 years ago i saw an article in Organic Gardening magazine where a man built a large flat box on his roof and instead of copper tubing he used garden hose. He enclosed it with glass and of course painted the inside of box and tbe hose with black paint. He hooked up the hose to his hot water heater and most days it never turned on and on cloudy days it did so it was a good back-up. His was not as compact as yours, but he had a whole family to heat water for. It was meant to be a permanently in place installation.

[@drmachinewerke1]

I just coil 3 100ft Garden hoses on my sun room roof It is tied into my hot water side of my house . It gets hot enough that we add cold water for showers

[@cyrilbrun8764]

Hi , your comment interests me . Hot water wants to rise , and I presume your tank is down . How are you circulating the water that is heated on the roof . I built a hot air collector for winter heating and it works Good , now I'm exploring heating water for summer months , hope to hear from you , Thanks .

[@Swerve744]

Great diy project thanks.

[@drestanmiller6716]

Great project & comments added all very useful. Suggest that all the temp. stuff in future be given as US/Fahrenheit with Metric/Celsius units added in brackets - Please for all surviving the weather in & outside the US

[@tamitng]

Thank You! I was thinking about the pvc one but I don't like storing the water in the plastic especially when it gets hot. Just don't trust it not to leech into the water. Copper is perfect!!

[@justanotherwarrobotschanne5774]

Lot of hot water lines are PVC.

[@marieschieler1914]

Tami Gami

[@abuhamza1970]

Nice vid, thanks for sharing. Although you might want to coat the Perspex with 303 aerospace av protectant to stop the Perspex deterioration

[@edshelden7590]

Great simple design. I would add a pre-filter at the head end of the water input.

[@MrMusic1950]

I used black PTFE pipe woven back and forth across the south end of my house. a copper heat transfer inside my water tank + a small central heating pump, header tank and antifreeze. works ok in winter too. enough heat for a bath, add electric heater for ten minutes & your heading for steamy bath.

[@orangepeace9900]

Great job man

[@samdios159]

sempre pensei fazer isso...e agora tenho certeza que da certo.👍👍

[@razony]

Great idea. The only thing I would have done differently would be putting a thin black like slate board like a chalkboard or guage 3-6 sheet metal (blackened) where the glass would have been.

[@daverose7126]

Great good job I need to make my self one too for my Hot Tub its very easy to make Thanks much UTUBE tums up to you guys

[@tushaye2175]

Love your channel.. thank's for the awesome content..👍☀️🙏☀️

[@desertsun02]

thanks. much appreciated 👍😎

[@billloveless6869]

Good video. My questions are: would it improve efficcincy to have a reflective backing? and would adding a Fenseal lens help? Thanks

[@leonitasmaximus4004]

I just did something similar as well. I left my black hose in the grass for a day. Its about 300 ft worth of hose. When I spray that puppy boy I got me some hot ass water!

[@williwonka5106]

Cracks me up with the hand screw driving. Great build.

[@heartstrings145]

Thanks that is a great project. How long did it take for water to heat and what temp was outside?

[@ochat2010]

very awesome!

[@gareng5599]

nice.... and easy to make solar water heater.

[@jamesg1204]

This is a great project! Simple, efficient, and inexpensive. One suggestion have you thought about using tile as the backing to gain additonal heat retention. Also tie straps won't last in the heat, small c-clamps secured with screws would last longer. Again great projector. Great thought starter.

[@magicman0867]

U mean zip ties

[@rabeeayman9777]

مصنع الصاج الملف

[@andrewford80]

@@magicman0867 Some people call them tie straps.

[@andy347]

Tile is not a good insulator though so would transmit heat out the back. Wood is a better insulator and helps hold the heat in the box.

[@hughjaanus6680]

I have a porch at my front door and it gets to 38deg C. I keep 3 x 3 litre bottles there and when washing clothes etc. I use that as the water is 10deg C from the ground. Saves heating the water.

[@rodhigh7]

I have accomplished a number of solar projects and would like to pass along a couple of comments. First, plastic tie wraps will get brittle in the sun, I would have used copper wire to attache the tubing by stitching it through the holes in a continuous length. Also, I would have made the backing plate out of metal painting it flat black before attaching the tubing to absorb a little extra energy ! GOOD PROJECT THOUGH !

[@clydealspaugh8701]

Good ideas. I would add that one should consider up-sizing from 50 feet of copper tubing to 100 feet. This would give increased output capacity. Of course one might also make two or three of these and simply connect them to get the same effect. I'm thinking of having a larger/longer sustained output.

[@TodoFrigorista]

Hola, Se le tiene que colocar un vidrio a todo el cuadrado, para impedir que el calor no se pierda. Saludos

[@dattape2828]

great ideal. use a lot of on the roof. thing is, you probably get great hot water by noon when the sun is apex for a shower. the rest of the time warm water is good for dish washing and such

[@bravozilla]

great video

[@nickname7152]

Thank you for sharing your experience, it's golden. However, I'm wondering could you get better result with no space between copper circles. In summer it could not be matter. But, in fall or winter air around copper can make them less warm. If no space between them, they can share own heat with inner or outer circle too? Also wondering, if bigger copper tubes could get more heat via more copper surface = more heat? Thank you for your time, Mehmet

[@the747guy]

Nice water heater for my pool. Do you know at what speed/rate is the water going into the coil to get those temperatures out of it? Why much time does the water need to spend inside the coil to get really hot out of it? I am trying to build my system with 1/2" copper tubing and would consider replacing the tubing with 1/4" coil, as you suggest to get hotter water "faster" due to the smaller diameter tubing.

[@stanleyvo5198]

Good idea...!

[@mikenolzeynolan4635]

Bloody awesome, great video mate ! wanna make 1 asap so when were camping on the beach 4 weeks at a time we can a fresh warm showers ! Cheers

[@desertsun02]

hi there and thanks. that'd be a great use for it 😎

[@DieselBoatMan]

You might consider an inline venting valve to help purge air pockets between uses.

[@ManKetnas]

nice construction and still optimisable

[@nuckelhed7]

Nice and simple design, but zip ties will crack in the heat over time. Recommend using copper wire instead. I really like the amount of detail in your videos. Other DIY vid makers could learn a thing or 2 from you. Great job!

[@Ianizlooking]

Any old appliance should have copper wiring. I usually like to take it all off of old thrown away appliances.

[@manoharholambe8903]

I was also thinking about zip.Your suggestion of copper wire is right.

[@carltaylor4942]

nuckelhed7 - Also prolonged exposure to UV light destroys plastic zip ties. Here in the south of Spain they last about a month in summer and just fall to bits!

[@varinanuntanit4941]

ช

[@Junkinsally]

The zip ties are painted black, no exposure to UV.....

[@SangiTariq]

Lovely

[@UnkJo357]

Amazing.

[@davidmichaelthd331]

Should have a metal sheet backing (like aluminum) behind the copper coils to transfer more heat to the coils. Wood backing a heat insulator. This way you can spread out he coil rings a little wider for a larger thermo heat system. Buy dense black paint as used for camo spray paint to increase transfer of heat.

[@tupensworth7629]

Neat idea, good video. Subbed :)

[@bilawalalkani9155]

nice work

[@brettuk1984]

That's great! Can you tell me what temperature I might expect from this size when it's still cold and windy outside? 10 -15 degreees C. Thanks!

[@markakin3742]

haha

[@01aether10]

We do something similar on our farm. In winter at between midday and 2pm, the water is warm enough to wash the dishes with.. In summer it is scolding hot for most of the day. We use black plastic pipe, not sprayed copper.

[@alanbrown397]

Do you get a thermosyphon effect with this construction method or do you need to provide pumping?