Solar Hot Water Shower - DIY Solar Shower - (using Black Poly Water Heater)

in this instructable i'll show you how to set up a solar hot-water shower

video shows how to make a solar powered hot shower w/dual hot and cold water adjustments. hooks to a standard municipal water tap. save money on your gas/electric bill. cost of materials $15.00. after that - free hot water!

1.) 100 (or more) feet of 1/2" black poly irrigation tubing (that will act as the water heater or hot water line) ($10.00)

2.) Two black poly "garden hose style" connectors (one for each end of the black poly tubing) (75 cents each)

2.) 50 to 75 foot green garden hose (the cold water line) - free (since you probably have that)

3.) Two "Y type" splitters ($1.00 each)

4.) One small "spot" sprinkler ($2.00)

i coiled it in a spiral and tied it down to a scrap piece of plywood i had, but coiling it neatly is optional. if you don't care how it looks just place it in the sun. water will heats up very fast in the sun. i can get 130-140F water in about 20 mins. note: that is way to hot to shower with, but the system were setting up mixes the cold and hot water before it comes out of the "showerhead". see pics of the valves above. they have individual water-flow controls on them. i placed the coil in various places in the yard. securing it to a board makes it easy to transport

that's the tap on the back of my house. i used a silver colored splitter. you can see that splitter has water-flow controls on it too. now connect the garden hose and the black poly to it. see pics

the first pic above shows how it screws together. i used an optional straight piece to go between the Y splitter and the sprinkler head. that way i can shut off the flow (at the showerhead) with a single control value.

you can do this several ways. if you've got trees, just balance or tie it to a branch or the trunk. not many trees where i live... so i placed it on top of a long stake i had previously put in the ground (part of a former project).

when prepping it for use, first, i run a little water thru it and then shut it off. then i just wait for the water in the black coil to heat up. (again that usually only takes 20 mins on a sunny day) and when your ready, just turn the water on and adjust it to the desired temp. the black ploy side holds a couple of gallons at a time (give or take). i think i used about 136 feet total. since the water is so hot on the black poly side of the system - most of the water flow is actually on the cold side - so shower will stay warm for a good length of time (8 mins or so). but a lot depend on how hot the water gets and how much tubing you use and the water flow rate etc... you can drain and refill all day long and get a ton of water out of it

here's some final pics. next... construct a small shower enclosure using PVC maybe?

here's the original video i made when i first constructed the black poly water heater. i've seen it get to 150F regularly and as high as 160F on one very hot day (tubing is rated to 180F) ...so when your not using it for "shower water" you can just fill a bucket whenever you need hot water (for hand washing dishes or clothes or any task where a couple of gallons is what you need). i've done that for many years and noticeably save on my hot water bill.