Slashing the Bills, Part I

We visited friends of ours last night. They are completely off the grid and self-sufficient. Pretty awesome setup. It got me re-thinking my plan of action here, and got me to juggling some goals. All that aside, I have devised a way to get virtually free hot water, using sunshine and/or our woodstove. I'm hoping to land a side project or 2 which will enable me to purchase a kitchen cookstove and the stove pipe needed for it and our woodstove. Here's how that all fits together...

Currently we have a tankless propane water heater which provides us with our hot water. It is nice, but it costs money to use. With a clothesline up, and the plan to use the kitchen cookstove for most of our winter-time cooking, and grilling outdoors for summer, the next big expense is our hot water. So - commense thermosiphoning...what is that you ask? Here is a diagram of the plan:



Relying on the simple fact that heat rises, I will be making water go from a tank to the roof - as water gets hot on the roof, pump it down into a holding tank. As water cools and sinks in the tank, take the cold water on the bottom, and push it to the roof.

First, I plan on building the Collectors - probably 2 to start. I am going to buy the solar heaters used in pools - they look like 3x5 black sheets of tubing. They cost around five dollars a piece. They have 1/2" tubing at top and bottom, and 1/8" tubing running vertically. I will sit the collectors in a framed box covered with glass which will be fastened to the roof. As the water sits in the 1/8" tubing, it heats up. The glass is so the water will continue to heat up in the winter time when temperatures are cold outside. As the water reaches 140 degrees, it will kick the controller off to send a signal to the pump which will push the hot water to the water heater....I'll need to get a conventional water heater. The water heater will basically be an insulated storage tank for the heated water - it won't be 'on'. The water tank will have a cold supply from the house. The hot water supplying the house will come off the top of the water heater.

A secondary measure for heating the water in winter time will be used. Again relying on the simple fact that heat rises, I will be making water go from the tank to the pipe on the woodstove - as water gets hot on the stove pipe, the hot water will rise up to the holding tank. As water cools and sinks in the tank, the cold water will fall to the basement where the woodstove is located.

I know these last few entries have been backward - the DIY before I do-it-myself. I'll be building this sometime this fall...hopefully.