Solar water heating panels

On a sunny day, using DIY solar water heating panels to heat your water will not cost you a dime. You have probably heard of the benefits of using solar thermal panels to heat water and that's why you are looking for guides on how to build your very own DIY solar water heating panel. Another reason could be that commercial solar thermal panels are priced way off your budget. Well whatever it is, here you are going to learn how to build your very own DIY solar water heating panels.

It is extremely simple to build a solar thermal panel for heating water if you understand the concept and how it works.

In a solar thermal panel, the sun's heat builds up in an enclosed area causing the maze-like pipe to absorb the heat. When water runs through the heated pipe, the heat it transferred to the water thus making it warm/hot. For a thermal panel to work, heat needs to build up inside the panel and there shouldn't be any gaps where heat can escape. In an enclosed environments, things get heated up quickly. You can experiment this by standing in a glass-house when the sun is scorching for 5 minutes and get out of the glass-house. You will realize that the temperature in the glass-house is higher.

By experiencing and understanding that heat is hotter when in a enclosed area, you should be able to construct a solar thermal panel. There are many ways to build DIY solar water heating panels. If you want the water really heated, let it stay in the panel as long as possible. That's the basics of it all.

Lets work on a small experiment to heat up water with DIY solar water heating panels. When you see that it is successful, you will know how to scale it up to provide solar heated water for your needs.

Materials:

• Tiny copper pipes
• Black rubber mats
• Clear sheet of glass
• Some wood
• Aluminium foil
• Screws and nails
• Seals
• Black paint

You are going to construct a thermal panel as big as the rectangular rub mat you can find.

Step. 1 - Create a maze like pattern with your tiny copper pipes. Make sure the enter and exit points are beside each other. Also make sure the size of your maze is as big as your rubber mat.

Step. 2 - Spray your copper maze black.

Step. 3 - Construct a frame using wood materials to fit your rubber mat and copper maze.

Step. 4 - Wrap the rubber mat with aluminium foil. The wrapped rubber mat will be the based for your copper maze. Attach the rubber mat to the wooden frame.

Step. 5 - Insert the copper maze into the frame. Make sure there's a small gap between the wrapped rubber mat and the copper maze.

Step. 6 - Enclose the copper maze by sealing the top of the frame with glass. Seal all gaps with a sealer except the inflow and outflow of the copper maze.

Step. 7 - Your solar thermal panel is done. Leave it under the sun for about 5-10 mins and try running cold water through it very slowly.

If everything has been set up right, the water coming out from the copper maze's outflow point will be heated.

With heated water, your DIY solar water heating panels experiment is complete. Now build a bigger scale set of solar thermal panels to satisfy your water heating needs.