I wasn’t aware that central hot water was rare in Brazil, here in Canada every home has central hot water and it is just taken for granted that every house has a large electric or gas heated hot water tank. Jacob Teater wanted to cut his electrical bill by installing a Solar Hot Water Heater and re-plumbing his home. Have a look at the video around the 8:40 mark for a demonstration of an instant hot water shower head, it takes cold water and instantly heats it up for a warm shower (yes it takes lots of juice to do that on demand).
Via: Hacked Gadgets Post Comment
"As part of our remodeling I decided to re-plumb the house to have hot and cold water pipes. And instead of using electricity I wanted to attempt to build a solar hot water heater. The solar water heater consists of two basic parts, the hot water tank and the solar collector. The tank is 310 liters (82 gallons), it sits in the attic and is insulated with spray foam insulation. The solar collector is made up of 1/2 inch and 3/4 inch PVC pipe and florescent light bulbs. The collector is encased in an insulated box with glass on one side."
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Fluorescent bulbs are filled with mercury. I hope he didn’t breathe/handle that, and I really hope it’s sealed from the water pipes..
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Dont worry, I wore a mask and gloves when i broke the bulbs. (I didnt have enough time to include that in the video, but it is in my blog post, see link above) They are just fitted over the pipes, so there is no contact with the water. Living in this part of Brazil comes with its risks, for example the house in the background has asbestos roofing and our water source is a swamp!
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wow!!! this is a very nice picture of home with solar water heater installed.. this is very contemporenous and eco friendly. Also please allow me to post my links to help readers and curios on lookers to know what is solar power water heater, its usage and benefits.Thank you
http://www.greencajun.com