Disconnected the 240V water heater, today

[Harold in CR]

Down here, we have the Italian suicide shower heads. They have 240V run into the upper chamber of the shower head. The water is heated by the water pressure pushing up on a diaphragm, and that activates the resistance coil that gets submerged as the water fills the upper chamber, then, that water is discharged into the lower chamber where it gets spread out to form the circular shower head pattern.

IF a person has a fresh scratch or cut on their head, even if it is scabbed over, the hot water running on the scalp, causes a "BUZZ" from the electricity. :lol: YEAH BABY, hot foots in the shower.

I finished up a smaller solar collector, yesterday, and today, we slid it up on the roof and I spent the day plumbing it to a 3.5 gallon tank inside the bathroom, and making a mixing valve of sorts, to help temper the water if it gets too hot, in the middle of the day.

It's not the best install I ever did, but, ole Rube Goldberg would be proud. Wife is trying it out as I write this. So far, no shouting about too hot or too cold. Just got the 2 thumbs up, signal. Wife isn't too terribly hard to please, and, I get paid, later tonight. :wink:

NO MORE electricity to THAT damn device.

 

[dnmun]

i have always felt and i think proved with the solar system i built that you can capture more energy from solar hot water than with PV for the amount of money you have to invest up front.

the jimmy carter solar tax credits caused many people to install solar and then later they were removed and i bot all my panels used for 1/10 of retail. big 3'x8' kennametal copper panels that weight 200llbs for $80 each, pumps for $25. i think the entire 6 panels and controller was less than $700, the 125 gallon tank was the most expensive at $495.

this was in 1985 and it still runs and makes more water than they need. also the hydronic radiant floor heating and extra insulation in the walls and ceiling so the heating is about $200 for propane/year at 8,000 feet in the rockies.

passive solar house, gets to 80o inside in the january when it is 10o outside, all solar. but maybe saved $300/year on hot water heating for 28 years. it adds up.

 

[Harold in CR]

Yup, when we left the farm in Arkansas, we build an earth sheltered type house. Just the bedrooms and full bath upstairs. Buried 2" Galv pipe all over the slab area after putting down Visqueen then,welded wire panels, then 2" sheets of styrofoam, then the pipes, then the concrete.

Had the 4KW wind turbine I built, that would charge batteries, and also run 2 4KW water heater elements that were in a 250G propane tank, on it's side, in the attached greenhouse we build onto the south slope of the house. Builat a solar chimney and put a 2" fan in ti, to exhaust hot air from upstairs.

WHEW, wicked lightning storm just blew through.

Also took a 250Gallon round ball type Propane tank and built a wood burning stove and water heater, for the winter months. That thing would run us out of the house, if we were careful what type wood and how much we threw into that thing.

We were totally off grid for 5 years or so with that system. Had a backup generator for when we needed to keep the batteries up to snuff.

 

[John in CR]

Dnmun,

What kind of idiots got rid of working solar hot water heaters for so cheap?


Harold,

Let me know if you come up with any cheap tank ideas. I've all but decided to just go with gravity for pressure and use one of the big glass/plastic tanks that can be had from the hardware store for about $100.

John

 

[Harold in CR]

What kind of idiots got rid of working solar hot water heaters for so cheap?

I never said anything like that ??
Where did you get this idea ?? Mr Mun ?

In Arkansas, any hardware store had used water heaters out back. 99% were leakers. I used to get them for hauling them off, and strip them down in the shop. Fill with water and pop a few # of air in them, and watch for the leaks. 90% of those leaks were under slag from welding the seams. I would chip off the slag and spot a quick bead of weld and watch for the leak to stop, or not. I leak in other spots would receive a sheet metal screw with some gas tank repair epoxy, the kind you knead the 2 sticks together, smear a dab in the hole, coat the threads of the screw and smear a dab under the screw head, tighten down snug, NOT hard, and smear a dab over the whole repair.

Then, I would build bread boxes with 2 tanks and a sensor to pump the hot water down into the basement, if a house had one. Bought Teel brand hot water pumps from a local Grainger supply house. I watched the newspaper and also listened to the local radio station "Swap Shop" for people remodeling and I would grab every sliding glass door that was available, and build the bread box to that size. Used foam tape to lay the door on the top of the sloped box, and had a couple strips of galv metal screwed to the lower edge of the box, so the door would not slide down. made for easy access in case of repairs or mods.

On the propane tank in our house-green house add on, I welded a couple couplings on the tank, and screwed the elements into those. When the batteries were well charged and the wind blowing, you could hear those elements sizzling if you placed an ear against the tank.

John, check out scrap metal buyers in your area. These people don't know about those leaks under the slag. We can spot weld one easy enough, and don't worry about that glass lining. Just do a stab and lift type chewing gum weld.

I will talk more when we get together. Mine is "experimental" so to speak. My roof won't support me very well, so, I made a small one. It just takes the chill off the ground water temps, and, not for long at that. :lol:

 

[dnmun]

the solar hot water panels became surplus during the reagan era. after he removed the jimmy carter solar collectors from the roof and installed the billy carter beer cans then all of a sudden there were tens of thousands of people who took the solar panels off of their house and sold them for scrap. i bot most in 1984 and still got the tax credit. i'm talking about $500 after taxes for a 6 panel, heat exchanger, taco pumps, controller, donkey dick insulation and pipes. total. 125 gallon water heater itself was almost $500.

most of the solar systems had become inoperable because of poor maintenanace and low level technology unreliability, along with the general feeling among homeowners that a water heater should not need attention by the owner.

this is kinda like the current EV introduction, which i think will put a lot of used EVs on the market when people find out how much maintenance can cost as the dealers try to milk the early adopters of cash.

it has been a long time since i have seen solar panels sold off cheap on CL and i never read the classified ads at all. on line free ads by CL has totally changed the previous social commercial interface.

i have only known a few people who were totally off the grid, out in the atchafalya swamps and back then a lotta people had no generator either. or money. lived on harvesting spanish moss and fishing and crawdadding.

 

[Harold in CR]

Reagan was the reason my Alt energy business took a crap, after he removed the alt energy credits. I moved from Arkansas directly to Florida, so, I never saw or heard about people scrapping solar water heaters and panels ? I would have gladly bought a few PV panels. I still have 1 of the ones I was selling, back then, in Florida. I would like to get it down here, but, I imagine it would be busted before I received it.

We had the Channel 3 news from Springfield Mo. come out and interview us. They took photos of my wife using blenders and mixers without grid power. She told Erin Hayes, the reporter, that she didn't miss Arkansas Power & light one little bit. :lol: That was included in the news clip the next night. :lol:

I even wrote a column every week for the local newspaper, and, offered to counsel interested people that were considering water heaters and such. 1 person called and never showed up. After 3 months of that, I gave up. One old timer told me " these people wouldn't pay a dime to see a cow jump over the court house". He was dead right.