PVC

PVC Water Heater

Instruction Manual

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2 long planks

2 short planks

1 sheet 1 inch thick particle board

3 pieces + 1 piece glass wool cut to fill

1 sheet tin

31 PVC elbows

13 PVC pipes 6 feet

14 PVC pipes 6 inch

6 holender PVC

4 pieces sheet strips 2 inch

1 heat resistant spray paint
1 200 litters barrel

1 7 inch diameter copper pipe

12 PVC fittings with inner thread

5 PVC fittings with male thread
2 plastic supports

6 90-degree steel pieces

1 tube heat resistant silicone

1 6mm glass

8 aluminum clamps
1 valve 3/4 inch
3 PVC tees

1 ventilation valve
4 45-degree bends

3 connection valves

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In this manual, we are going to show you how to build a really inexpensive solar water heater.

Frame and Insulation

The frame on this version will be made of wood, and the dimensions will be 3 1/2 feet by 7 feet by

6 inches high. There is nothing sacred about these dimensions, so long as you cut all your parts to

fit, but it needs to be about this size to heat approximately 50 gallons per day. We used regular

treated pine 1 x 6s, but hardwood is less likely to warp.

Using self-drilling wood screws, we fasten the frame together at the corners, and you will notice
that we have routed a groove along the top edges to accommodate the 1/4-inch glass cover we will

put in place later. The glass cover is probably going to be the most expensive component of this
solar water heater, and the size of the plate glass most readily available may end up determining the

actual dimensions of your frame.

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For the back of the frame, we are using 3/4-inch particle board, cut to fit the outside dimensions of

the frame.

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We fasten the back to the frame using self-drilling wood screws as well. Start with the corners and then

fill in in between, about every 6 inches. This will make the frame more rigid and discourage warping.

Here we are cleaning up the edges using the angle grinder and a sandpaper disk.

We are going to insulate the frame with 3-inch, foil-backed fiberglass bats. Cut them to fit snuggly

and lay them in the frame foil side up.

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On top of the fiberglass, we lay some 1/32-inch steel sheeting cut to the inside dimensions of the

frame, and this is going to serve as the back of our solar collector, which we are going to build

from 3/4-inch PVC tubing.

Next, we drill exit holes for the PVC tubing at opposite corners of our frame, one on what will be

the top right of our frame and another on the bottom left.

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Piping System

Now, we are going to start building the PVC solar collector using 3/4-inch PVC tubing and elbows
like you see here the ones with the metal fittings are used for the external connections.

Basically, we are going to construct a serpentine of PVC tubing up and down the length of our

frame, and the distance between each element of the serpentine is 2 1/2 inches. We start by cutting

pieces of tubing to length and cut short pieces to connect the long ones together using the plain
elbows.

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The length of the PVC tubes may vary when you build your collector. Just make sure you cut the
tubing to fit inside your frame.

Its really easy to use a PVC welding tool, and you may be able to rent one. The business end of
this handy little tool melts the tubing one side does the outside and the other does the inside and

these interchangeable elements come in different sizes, so make sure that you have the correct size
for the tubing you are working with.

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Now, we have a bunch of PVC welding to do until all our long pieces are connected and the

tubing array fills up our frame.

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The last weld we make is to attach elbows with the metal threaded adapters to the tubing where it exits

the opposite corners of the frame, so we can attach the piping to connect the collector to our tank.

This is how the panel is looking so far.

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Next, we are going to attach the PVC collector to the steel sheet backing using 2-inch straps cut out

of the same steel sheet.

We want one strap close to each end and one in the middle.

You simply bend the strapping down over the PVC tubing and where it comes in contact with the

steel sheet backing, drill a hole through the strap and the backing and fasten them together using
popping rivets.

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This is what your collector looks like when the PVC tubing is completely fastened down to the

steel sheet backing.

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Now, we will spray the whole thing with flat-black, water and heat resistant paint. We are doing
this, not only for appearances sake, but to increase heat absorption in the collector.

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Hot Water Tank

For our tank, we are using a 50-gallon

drum. We have already cut one end

out of the drum with the angle grinder

and set it aside, and we have done this

carefully, because we are going to
have to weld it back in place later.

In the other end, we are going to drill

two 3/4-inch holes for the water input

and output connections.

We are going to insert some PVC connectors with threaded metal adaptors into these holes, and we

wrap the threaded ends with pipe sealing tape and adhesive before forcing them in. We have to have

a watertight fit.

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We have built our own heat exchanger by bending a length of 1/2-inch copper tubing around some
10-inch diameter PVC pipe.

It will go inside our tank like so. Water heated by the sun in the collector will pass through this
coil and give up its heat to the water inside the tank.

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Now, we mark and drill the holes for installing the coil inside the tank.

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Now, we solder copper fittings on the ends of our coil that will be used to connect it to the lines from
our solar collector.

Next, we screw one part of a two-piece steel fitting onto the copper ones. This steel fitting passes

through the hole in the side of the tank and fits flat up against the inside wall. The other piece of

the steel fitting screws onto the other side and fits flat against the outside wall to make a watertight
seal. To make sure, we wrap the threads on this steel fitting with pipe tape and adhesive.
This two-piece steel fitting accepts a PVC adapter we will use to connect our piping.

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This is what our tank looks like with all

the PVC adaptors in place.

Our system is going to look like this.

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It operates strictly on what is called natural convection which means the tendency of fluid

heated in a closed vessel to rise to the top displacing colder fluid and forcing it to the bottom of the

vessel. Our system has two natural convection circuits one is a closed circuit consisting of the
collector and the coil inside the tank and the other is an open circuit consisting of the tank, the cold

water feed line and the hot water line running to our faucet, which are connected through the end

of our tank cold water feed at the bottom, hot water line at the top. Water heated in the collector

by the sun rises into the coil through a pipe at the top of the collector where it forces the cooler water

that has already given up its heat to the water in the tank through the coil to fall out the other

end and return to the bottom of the collector. We add water to the tank through the cold water feed

at the bottom and draw off heated water from the top. Our closed circuit has a valve at the bottom

of the collector, so we can keep the circuit filled with water, and an air vent valve at the top to
permit any air trapped in the circuit to escape.

Piping System

Lets get started on the piping system.

First, we are going to build the closed circuit, and we start with the hot water side the shorter

section that connects the top of the collector to the coil.

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We need to incorporate a connection for our air vent valve, so we use our PVC to steel fittings and
a T-joint to create this section of the piping. These give us our connection to the outflow side of
the collector piping and a fitting to receive our air vent valve.

We are going to have to put in another elbow to make our connection to the coil, and where we put
this elbow sort of depends on where the coil connections come through the sides of the tank so

we are going to wait on this until we are ready to put all the pieces of the system together and start
on the cold water side of the closed circuit.

Here we have cut a length of PVC tubing to connect to the bottom of the collector and installed an
elbow to begin the connection to the coil.

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We still have to finish the connection at the bottom of the collector and the connections to the coil,
but this gives you an idea of where the tank will go in relation to the collector and confirms that we
have plenty of tubing to complete our coil connections.

Now, its time to weld the end back on the tank. We are using an arc welder, and, if you have no

experience with welding, try to recruit a friend who has all the necessary equipment and knows what
to do, or you should hire it done.

We start by welding 10 or 12 points around the

circumference of the drum sitting on the detached

end. If you try a continuous weld, the heat will deform
the end, and you will never get a watertight weld.

After we finish the points, we use a

hammer to create a uniform gap between

the end and the drum, so we will be sure to
get a tight, neat looking bead.

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Now, we are welding a continuous bead around the circumference.

Here, we smooth out any rough edges

with the grinder and a wire brush.

Now, we paint the tank with the same flatblack spray paint we used before.

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Installation

Were going to mount our water heater on a demonstration frame, so you can see all the parts in

close proximity, and here we are at the top of the demonstration frame setting our tank in a cradle
we made out of scrap lumber.

We lift the collector into place below the tank and fasten it to the frame using stainless steel brackets
we made in the shop from scraps.

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Here we prepare to install the glass cover by running a thick bead of heat resistant silicone around

the routed top edge of the frame.

Here, we have laid the glass cover in place and pressed it securely into the recess in the frame we

prepared for it and made sure that the silicone formed a tight seal. We fabricated some clips out of

the same steel sheet we used for the collector backing and straps and screw these to the outside of
the frame and fold them over to lock the glass in place.

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Now, we are going to finish our piping connections.

We start by wrapping the end of our air vent valve with pipe tape and fitting it permanently into the

pipe assembly we jiggered together from various short lengths of PVC and fittings for a perfect

connection to the coil.

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Next, we are going to connect the other end of the coil in our tank to the intake at the bottom of our

collector, incorporating the filler valve. You pretty much have to eyeball these various connections.

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Now, we are going to connect our water lines to the tank.

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If you plan to do any maintenance on

the water heater, its a good idea to use

a water By-Pass System of pipes to

isolate the tank from your regular water

system and we are building a simple

one here.

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Now, were charging the collector and coil system with water. If you have installed an air valve,
it will close automatically when all the air is out, or, if not, you know the system is full when you
see water escaping at the top of the collector, and you just cap it off.

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During warm weather, you can use regular tap water to charge your system. If you plan to use the
system during freezing cold
weather, you should use water

heater anti-freeze to charge

the system. This is not regular

anti-freeze like you use in

automobile radiators. That

kind of anti-freeze solidifies

at high temperatures and there

is no way to get it out of your

system if this should happen.

We hope you enjoyed this project!

You sure cant beat the price!
Good luck!

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