Part 1 Simple Off-Grid cabin hot water system.

#offgrid #offgridcabin
Part 2 can be seen here : • Part 2 Simple Off-Grid...
In this video I show my off-grid water collection and hot water set up.
I collect rain water off the roof into a 1000l IBC through a 77 micron filter. It feeds out the bottom through another 77 micron mesh (i forgot to mention) and gets pumped in to my cabin. This is done using an off grid solar power supply. Perhaps a vid for another time. This water gets pumped inside to a 85L holding tank at ceiling height. The water gravity feeds out to a coil of copper pipe around a 5 inch flue on my wood burning stove. The heat boils the water and forces it to rise up and back into the top of the holding tank. This can be described as a thermal siphon system.

[@peteryule6192]

Excellent, well done . You can't beat keeping it simple..

[@Earthenhearth]

Thanks Peter. Glad you enjoyed. Too right, no need to complicate things, simple works best here ✌️

[@dylanporter9527]

​@Earthenhearth

[@dylanporter9527]

​@Earthenhearth

[@dylanporter9527]

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[@dylanporter9527]

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[@joelhacker8767]

Be careful whenever you bring steel and copper together. There is a concept called galvanic corrosion, especially if there is any zinc in the steel. Any exposed surfaces that are touching have a potential to corrode because of electro-chemical interaction between the two metals.

[@cli4d.wanderer886]

I see that the exhaust pipe/chimney pipe (whatever it's called) is painted, there may be less to no galvanic action happening. But just in case, putting a sacrificial metal (usually zinc) in there connected to the copper pipe and exhaust pipe may fix the problem temporarily.

[@randybobandy9828]

Steel is painted

[@randybobandy9828]

​@@cli4d.wanderer886might want to use a TIM(thermal interface material) like thermal paste to help transfer as much heat from the chimney as possible

[@kensmith5694]

On the water plumbing it is common to use a brass object to make the barrier between copper and iron. On the chimney there is the option of a layer of high temperature paint.

[@Foxy64]

Absolutely brilliant , good on you for for doing everything yourself , really enjoyed watching this and got some good tips . Thanks for posting this...Cheers

[@Earthenhearth]

Thank you, much appreciated. I'm glad you got something from this ✌️

[@kensmith5694]

Water heaters use a clever trick you may be able to put into practice in a future design. It will take more plumbing and more pumps but here is the idea. The hot water tank is something that can take some number of PSI. You need to arrange something to limit the pressure that can build up. The cold water is fed into the bottom of the tank and the inlet inside the tank is angled to make the water go around the bottom of the outside. This means that if you take water out of the top, the new cold water will be the last taken. The heat exchanger can then be made to take water from the tank, heat it and put in it back near the top of the tank. again the inlet is angled to the side so the hot water goes around the outside of the top. It turns out that if you can stop water from mixing, cold water will happily stay at the bottom of a tank and work like a big piston to push the hot water out the top to the shower.

[@vincentolsen1668]

🇿🇦 I'm from suif African 🇿🇦 we'll I believe you fouks no OL an but the electrical fun and games we have In 🇿🇦‼️I whant to thank you for your video it will be able to help us to make oure life easier . Vincent for suif AFRICA 🇿🇦

[@Bleepers03]

Thank you for this… it just popped up due to my off grid power research but very happy it did I’m gonna try it out but my wood stove is only a propane tank at the moment

[@Earthenhearth]

Excellent, glad it helped. Good luck and hope you get all set up soon..

[@kevingray5646]

Rainwater, ph 5.9, copper pipe= holes and copper sulphate in your water and ringing the bath.

[@shanepowers7566]

Thanks, from Oklahoma, USA

[@Earthenhearth]

You're welcome ✌

[@Lee-xs4dj]

Buy a simple plate heat exchanger (£50) and use that to pass the heat from the stove loop to the hot water tank. On the clean side add a thermostatic mixer valve and set the temperature to your shower temperature 38 or so and then you can heat your shower water on demand without it needing to come from a tank.

[@gazza2963]

great little video mate. as you had no issues and it works perfectly, is it safe to assume your holding tank is vented? also how long from a cold start would you say it took to heat up the water in the video enough for a shower?

[@Earthenhearth]

Hi mate, thanks. Yes it is vented at the top, where the inlet pipes go in. Obviously time of year affects the time taken to heat the holding tank, as the incoming water varies in temp throughout the year. This time of year the stove is on morning till night every day so the tank is always at a good temp and top it up frequently. If I was to start from a full cold tank this time of year, start the fire about midday, I would be able to have a 35-40c shower that evening/night.

[@Earthenhearth]

I am thinking of doing a little vid about this v. soon so watch out for it.

[@Freshbrood]

Do you ever find that your pump gets clogged up with gunk after a while? Maybe the water in my area is too hard but after several months I always have white flaky crust gunking up the lines.

[@Earthenhearth]

Well that sounds like hard water. Not a problem here being rain water and haven't had any gunking up anywhere in the past 2.5 years so all good.

[@randybobandy9828]

Do they not make a barb fitting that could connect your 12v soft tubing to the copper pipe?

[@Earthenhearth]

I don't know tbh. Probably. I just used that as thats what I found to use at the time in the shop. It does the job, so no worries.

[@MichiganWinger]

This is excellent! How warm will the water get?

[@Earthenhearth]

Hiya, thankyou much appreciated. There is a part 2 which shows exactly that! 🙂

[@thorthunder3227]

I just hooked up a coil of copper around my pipe, the water got so hot it almost exploded the cpvc pipe that was no where near the copper ends it connected to. I need to know what i should do to prevent this and the best way to control it.

[@Earthenhearth]

Hmm sounds a bit iffy. Well I'm not sure how to help without seeing your set up, other than just replacing that PVC pipe with copper perhaps 🤷🏼‍♂️

[@PaulMetzler-gu6ew]

My dude, you can do better than this! No pressure relief valve to prevent a steam explosion. And what will you do about the inevitable build up of scale inside the piping wrapped around the flue?

[@stevedawson9191]

Yoy should speak slower... I couldn't keep up 🙄🤔😜

[@paysour1]

My God, are all off grid people Arnot in a hurry to say anyting.