DIY Insulated Stock Tank

When winter rolls around, our reliable solar power livestock water tank heater will save you money watering your animals and time and effort chopping ice.

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by Gary Reysa
This reliable livestock waterer will save electricity, and you won’t have to chop ice this winter!

Looking for alternative ways to heat a stock water tank? When winter rolls around, our reliable DIY insulated stock tank will save you money watering your animals and time and effort chopping ice.

Typical stock tanks have a large, exposed water surface that loses heat. They also have highly conductive, single-wall sides and bottoms that are in direct contact with cold air or cold ground. If your goal is to design a tank to maximize heat loss, you couldn’t do much better than a typical galvanized or plastic stock tank. By using this easy-to-build solar livestock water tank, you probably won’t need an electric tank heater to keep your livestock waterer from freezing this winter.  It will provide ice-free water in all but the most extreme winter weather. We used it through two frigid Montana winters, and if it works here, it should work just about anywhere.

The Passive Solar Insulated Stock Tank

The livestock waterer is built around a standard galvanized metal stock tank, which is surrounded by a well-insulated enclosure. The south wall of the enclosure is a double-glazed solar collector. Using two layers of corrugated plastic (double glazing) reduces overnight heat loss from the tank. The metal tank wall is just behind the collector glazing and acts as the collector absorber. The sun shines through the glazing onto the tank wall, which heats up the tank wall and the water. The tank wall is painted black to absorb heat from the sun efficiently. The waterer has a lid with an opening just large enough for animals to drink through, and this limits the heat loss from the water surface.

illustration of a solar stock tank
  • Updated on Jan 5, 2022
  • Originally Published on Aug 25, 2010
Tagged with: building, cold, galvanized, insulation, livestock tank, solar
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