Does anyone have plans for an outdoor shower heated by the sun? I'm thinking of about a 20 gallon size..more or less. It seems that I have seen transparent sprayer tanks for ag use (spraying herbicides in fields, etc.) I am thinking of a tank that could be placed on a stand or 'legs' similar to the smaller gasoline (gravity) tanks that were often seen on farms. I would like to have something like this for bathing horses... and want to have it available for my family in the event we are without power. Is there a better place to post this question?? Thanks in advance. I appreciate all suggestions. Renee (Please don't e-mail me! My computer is down and I will be checking here for responses from friends computer or work place)

-- Renee at Briar Creek (ribcreek@juno.com), October 16, 2001

Answers

Renee, I have plans for a system I've been using and improving for over twenty years; I believe it's what you're looking for. A panel which utilizes a second hand (preferably) piece of tempered glass from a sliding door, 46" by 76" (if memory serves) will heat a fifty gallon water tank in short order, reaching a temp of approx. 150 degrees on a sunny, warm day. This means that you'll be using mostly cold water in the shower, as you will likely want the shower temp to be about 105-110 degrees (I use 105, and my wife uses about 108, which is way too hot for me to stand, unless there's a breeze (the solar shower at our place, during the summer, is outside)

I accept a ten dollar donation, but it IS a voluntary donation.

You can build the whole system for under $200, plus a fifty gallon electric water heater (these can often be found for free, if your area has a program where the natural gas company replaces people's electric water heaters). Otherwise, a fifty gallon water heater will cost you $100-150.

I can send you the plans through email, preferably. If you want a hard copy, send me a self addressed, stamped envelope, and AT LEAST a buck or so to cover my costs. (email me for my address, as I don't post it on line)

JOJ

PS, this system uses gravity only (convection-no pumps) and is for non freezing months only. I'm about to design and construct a system for freezing weather, which will only be a preheater, I suspect, in my cloudy winter climate. This system will utilize a solar powered circulation pump, and will, obviously, cost more to build. To tell you the truth, I don't think it will be cost effective here in my cloudy winters, but there are other factors besides cost, which is why I'm going to do this (global warming, other types of pollution, independence, etc.

-- jumpoff joe (jumpoff@echoweb.net), October 17, 2001.

Hi; Be careful about using transluencent (spelling?) containers or you might end up with a large healthy algae crop ! Ourfarm

-- ourfarm (ourfarm@noaddr.com), October 17, 2001.

Gilligans ISland ,, cool. BUt I would go with the black instead of clear, for the above mentioned alge. ALos,, you might want a way to check the temp of the water,, an indoor themomerter with an outdoor sensor should work, dont want to scald a horse (or yourself)

-- stan (sopal@net-port.com), October 17, 2001.

My Dad use to have a "solar" shower of sorts when he had his house on the Chesapeake Bay years ago...guess Dad was ahead of his time. But what he did and we plan on doing this next summer too is just put a 50 gallon drum on the roof of the "chicken coop" and fill with water, paint it black and hook up your shower parts and all. It works fine and no real plumbing to it. I figure the grandchildren can shower outside all summer and save Granny from cleaning the tub too. Good Luck !!

-- Helena (windyacs@npacc.net), October 17, 2001.

Helena, just a note..... 50 gallons of water weights 400 lbs. plus the barrel. But you knew that didn't you ????

-- Rickstir (rpowell@email.ccis.edu), October 17, 2001.

Some time ago out here in the great southwest (New Mexico/Arizona) people used to place a good long coil of hose on their house or garage flat roofs and then tar them over. The black tar and the sun did the work quite well to hear the old timer's tell it. All you need is the gravity feed, no storage tank.

-- Willy Allen (willyallen2@yahoo.com), October 17, 2001.

You have all given me some good ideas. Thanks!

JOJ... I want to stay away from using electric. I don't bathe the horses or dogs too often as we do not show them. I'm trying to also think ahead incase of national disasters and power outage. For the cold months I'm just going to buy a 4.5 gallon 'sunshower' that I can fill with warm water hang up inside my bathroom shower to use.

Thanks for the tip about not using transparent plastic because of algae. Also it did not occur to me that some colors were better for trapping heat.

I think I want a plastic barrel.

Will it be hard to find fittings for the hose and sprayer that will not leak?

Thanks to all!

Renee

-- Renee at Briar Creek (Ribcreek@juno.com), October 17, 2001.

Several folks on here who have visited have seen my husbands "gallows" in the backyard :) Its a 10 foot high and about a 10 foot square, treated wood (yikes) platform over the well. Heavy duty just like everything he builds. With electricity on we can fill spare holding tanks up on the platform which are then used during times of electrical outages, and we have really nice pressure from gravity flow. It also has our well hand pump up on it which you can attach a hose to, and pump water all over the property with a hose, a lifesaver for goat watering when the electricty is off. We also have a water container that we can pump water into in the morning, let it heatup during the day and use the water hot for showers. A regular camping showerhead is screwed into the container. White plastic is what we use, black may work in the winter, but it would be scalding quickly in East Texas sun!! Vicki

-- Vicki McGaugh (vickilonesomedoe@hotmail.com), October 18, 2001.