A Simple Solar-Heated Shower

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The cold water shut-off is our rig's only control. When someone wants to use the shower, he or she steps into the stall, gently turns on the cold water, and then has enough time to take off his or her clothes before the first warm water starts running out of the shower head. The stream then turns hot almost immediately and—if you move reasonably expeditiously—you can soak down, lather up thoroughly, and—at that point—turn the water off. The shower will then continue to run just long enough to rinse you off completely.

Or, to put it another way, our solar-heated storage tank is located about 10 feet above our shower's head. This gives enough gravity pressure for comfortable bathing . . . but not so much pressure that we waste a great deal of water. The 13-gallon reservoir generally provides us with three generous or four skimpy showers on the average summer day.

When the sky is overcast, the heater's water runs about 85°F, and on a clear, sunny day the temperature goes up to 110° . . . the maximum bearable. On very hot days, the shower is simply too blistering to use in the middle of the afternoon. When this happens, we either bathe at noon (in which case, the reservoir reheats its contents enough for evening showers) or just wait until the sun goes down and our tank of water cools off a bit.

This, of course, is purely a summer cabin setup and we've hung our solar water heater out in the spring and taken it back in during the fall for the past two years. The whole shebang—even if all pipe fittings, the wood for the greenhouse box, etc., are bought new—shouldn't run over $35. Scrounge up most of the components, as we did, and you should get by for far less. Either way, after two summers of fuel-free hot water, we think our solar-heated shower is worth the price.

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