Solar Water Heater - The Cover Part 1

This is the second part of my solar water heater project for horse tanks. The other parts are:

• Getting Started
• The Cover- Part 1

To build the heater cover, I used the rough plans and adapted them. I put the base down, and then measured from there, taking into account the height of the tank. I had it just about an inch above the tank, which I realize now is too low. I should have allowed 2” and kept it low to the ground. We have a few ponies and they’re short, but lesson learned for v2.

The first measurements helped me get the sizes.

I started by cutting sides, slanting the front about 10 degrees and attaching a board along the top and bottom. These are bracing and give the cover the structural integrity. I used a 2x4 on top and a 2x6 on the bottom.

I also added an interior board, which will brace against the back. I allowed for the sides to stick out far enough to cover the back OSB, but that’s a mistake. I should have either set them flush, or allowed to cover the 2x6 with the upper and lower boards. It works, but looks funny.

I screwed this much together on the first day, with the rest of my wood buried in snow in the back of the truck. However I had a little more time, so I added some insulation. It was cut to fit with a utility knife. This isn’t the final size, but it gave me an idea of how it would look.

I started with the foil out, but I want to minimize heat reflection, so I turned things around as shown above.

A little paint to see how it took convinced me that I’d need real paint, as well as some other thermal mass.

I could probably have finished most of this in a day, but with other circumstances, this is where I stopped as we left for vacation.

A Solar Water Heater - Getting Started

This is not the kind you might think of from the title. I wasn’t trying to heat water for our house, but rather just keep water from freezing for horses out in the pasture. We don’t have power out there, and keeping water liquid is an issue.

My wife found a plan at Build It Solar, and I agreed to try it.

Materials

The first thing was a trip to the Home Depot. I loaded up with the following

• 3 sheets OSB
• 2 sheets foam insulation, 1.5”
• 2 8 ft 2x6
• 4 8ft 2x4
• various screws

I wasn’t sure how things would go together, but I got started.

The Base

The first thing was to get the base. I had a water tank, around which this thing was going, so I started there, measuring the tank top. With those measurements, I cut out two pieces of OSB, which would be my base.

I used a utility knife to cut the insulation to fit and what you see is the base on which the tank will sit. This should insulate the tank from ground head losses, with a cover around it.

I’ll talk about the cover next.