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Sunday, December 5, 2010

DIY Solar Water Heaters

Solar Water Heating

Solar water heating systems have a good economic payoff, and are manageable systems to install or build as a DIY project. Some of the solar water heating designs are simple and low cost. You can save a great deal of money by building your own system -- several thousand dollars. There are dozens of free plans listed below that should meet just about any need.

Simple batch systems are basically a tank painted black housed inside of a glazed box -- they work well in warm climates, and can be used in cold climates if drained for the winter. There are also plans shown for quite a few solar water heaters that can be used in cold climates right through the winter -- this includes our own $1,000 solar water heating system that has provided a solar fraction in excess of 90% through our cold Montana winter.

It is also possible to collect the federal tax rebate by using certified collectors, and building the rest of the system yourself.

My thanks to the people who have built systems, and then taken the time to send in pictures and descriptions for others to use.

Directory for this page:

Solar water heating basics
Batch solar water heaters
Thermosyphon solar water heaters
Drainback and Closed Loop solar water heaters
Our $1K Solar Water Heating System
Examples of $1K Systems
Making and evaluating collector fins
Evacuated Tube solar water heaters
Air Collector Water Heater
Sun tracking solar water heaters
Grey Water Heat Recovery
Heat Recovery Units
Heat Pump Water Heaters
Heating Water With Compost
Heating water for animals
Other Applications (Agricultural, commercial,...)
Fun Solar Showers for the summer
Solar water heating system components (heat exchangers, tanks, pumps, ...)
Glazing materials comparison
Maintenance and Troubleshooting for solar water heating systems
Used Collectors

NEW Information on pumps, heat exchangers, heat storage tanks and other components for solar space heating systems here...

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Our Mission

I am not bound to please thee with my answers.
William Shakespeare

We have been following this path (active prepping) since the early 1990's. In our case this includes military training, weapons training, hunting, fishing, tracking, advanced martial arts training in open hand CQB and hand weapons, orienteering, outdoors skills, and other less obvious but important skills. Your training and skills should, as much as possible, always be seen as tools that need to be improved. You never know everything and you can always forget what you know.

This site is dedicated not just to survival, but to the people who choose to live, with dignity as sovereign beings. We see too many people who focus entirely too much energy in pleasing themselves with shallow pursuits. Sacrificing their own freedom, and independence.

I believe we can all be sovereign citizens - by living life for ourselves; and not for the sake of others, or a group, or a collective state. Too many people spend too much of their time, money and lives concerned with what others think of them, and trying to gain the esteem of strangers. This is dangerous and not only effects how they spend the bulk of their money and their life's productivity, but even how they vote and how they view governance.

This "lifepath" I just described, which I call "living life for others", (Ayn Rand called it, "second hand living"), impacts the choices many people make about the cars they drive, the houses they own, even the clothes they wear. In its most essential form, it is an unthinking compulsion, or need to impress other people. The cold fact is other people, especially strangers - do not think about, or care at all, what you drive, what you wear, or what sort of house you live in; and even if they did, is it not somewhat insane to live life this way.

This false life path of "living to impress others" or "maintaining appearances" is a central ingredient of collectivist governance, and religious power schemes. It is how organizations like governments and religions control people. This primary tool of control has been used by countless entities: organized religion; and later by governments....i.e., leninism, marxism, socialism, facism whatever you may call it. They and all other collectivist forms of control use a few simple but effective mechanisms to control people; the desire to "belong", and....altruism.

Like Spock in Star Trek - the proponents of collectivism believe "the needs of the many, outweigh the needs of the few, or the one".

But this is a false and dangerous lie....for who determines what "need" is, and how exactly is the "many" determined?

By this vague but noble sounding principle two people....maybe your neighbors.....should be allowed to get together and "vote" to steal your belongings; your food, maybe your house, maybe your children......or even your life.

Why NOT - don't their needs outweigh yours?

The right answer, of course - is NO. America was, historically, the only form of government EVER founded on the principle that an INDIVIDUAL'S needs are paramount; and that together we all make up a society of individuals and that a proper governments central responsibility is to protect the INDIVIDUAL rights of its citizens.

Collectivism is a corrupt ideology by which people are legally allowed to steal the property, and productivity of an individual, any individual. They are justified by a vague undefined notion of the "needs" of some group or collective. Which can never be satisfied because "NEED" is always great according to someone.

Modern collectivism also has another benefit to its followers - it's phony altruism provides a twisted path to easy nobility. This un-earned nobility is often driven by the need to impress others with your apparent "compassion".

The answer to this is simple - Live life for yourself. Make choices for yourself - based on the way YOU want to live, and the person YOU want to be.

Do not concern yourselves with what others do, and how they choose to live. Learn to be at peace with your choices, and find yourself and true contentment.
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