Solar water heater (collector) - an indispensable assistant in the household. The collector of the right size and design is capable of providing hot water to a family of several people, while saving hundreds - thousands of rubles, which are spent on electricity and other types of energy resources.

If your dacha does not yet have electricity and gas, and the heating of the water presents a certain difficulty, I propose to make a solar water heater for showering and washing dishes from materials that can often be found in a dump.

First, you need to find a faulty refrigerator, namely, its coil is installed, which is fixed to the rear wall.

After the coil is dismantled, it must be washed with a stream of water to get rid of the old freon.

We reserve the racks, which we will need in the future for making the frame.

There was an old rubber mat, which is often under the door.

Glass, so it's not necessary to buy. It can be dismantled from the old window, which is usually thrown to the trash when replacing with plastic windows.

Since our rubber mat was too big, it was decided to trim it, in the size of the future frame.

From the beams we knock down the frame, so that the coil is freely placed between the racks.

We apply a coil and a rubber mat to the frame. Note the place of fastening the lower frame of the frame and the place of cuts for the exit of the tubes.

We install the lower rail of the frame, weave the foil between the rubber mat and the frame.

On the reverse side of the frame, we stuff the slats to make the structure stiff.

Scotch carefully glue all the cracks between the frame and foil. This is necessary to ensure that cooler outside air does not enter the collector.

To supply water to the coil, a PVC pipe was purchased.

Sealing of connections of pipes and coil, ball is provided with an adhesive tape.

To secure the coil, clamps were used, which were removed from the refrigerator. Fastening of clamps, so was provided with an adhesive tape. But for reliability I recommend fixing with screws.

Cover our structure with glass and glue it along the perimeter with adhesive tape.

The self-made solar collector is ready. For best heating, the sun's rays must fall to the surface of the collector at a right angle. Therefore, the fastening of the supporting elements of the structure is completed.

To prevent the glass from moving, a pair of screws must be screwed down below, which will serve as stops.

Now it remains to attach the tank for the accumulation of hot water.

Circulation occurs only due to natural convection. When heated, the water in the manifold expands, becomes less dense, rises up the collector and through the pipe enters the top of the storage tank. As a result, cooler water at the bottom of the tank is forced out and flows over another pipe to the lower part of the collector. This water in turn heats up and rises into the tank.

1 - hot water; 2 - pressure relief valve; 3 - draining hot water; 4 - shut-off valve; 5 - make-up valve; 6 - cold water; 7 - cold water supply; 8 - drain valve.

While the sun is shining, the water will constantly circulate along this contour, becoming more heated. Due to the fact that the tank is raised above the collector, the effect of the overturning of the circulation as a result of the night cooling of the coolant in the collector is reduced to zero, since cold water simply accumulates at the bottom of the system (at the bottom of the collector), while warm water remains in the tank.

This unpretentious design of the solar collector, is capable of heating water on a sunny day, up to 70 degrees.