Recycle a Refrigerator into a Solar Water Heater

By The Mother Earth News Editors
Published on November 1, 1977
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Diagram: How to convert an old refrigerator into a solar water heater.
Diagram: How to convert an old refrigerator into a solar water heater.
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Learn how to recycle a refrigerator into a solar water heater.
Learn how to recycle a refrigerator into a solar water heater.

Design and instruction about how to recycle a refrigerator into a solar water heater.

Recycle a Refrigerator Into a Solar Water Heater

Everyone knows that refrigerators are good for storing cold. What everyone doesn’t know is that fridges are also very good for storing heat . . . as Miles K. Free III points out in the following report.

Ever go riding or walking through the countryside . . . and discover an old, abandoned Frigidaire, Kelvinator, or what-have-you just sitting there collecting dirt, leaves, and field mice? A while ago — after I was laid off from the local steel Mill — I began to encounter so many of these derelict fridges that I actually found it profitable to load them into my pickup and sell them to the local scrap yard for $15 to $20 per ton.

For a while, I felt good knowing that I was helping to clean up the countryside, and recycle tons of valuable metals (thereby reducing the need for mining). I’ll admit, too, that I didn’t mind pocketing the few extra bucks that my “fridge salvaging” operation was netting me. But still, it was slightly upsetting to see all those once-useful appliances go on the scrap heap.

“Surely,” I said to myself, “there must be some useful function that a precision-made, well insulated ‘cabinet’ can serve.” And that’s when it hit me: Why not use an old refrigerator to store heat, rather than cold? Specifically, why not build a simple solar collector . . . connect it to a water storage tank . . . enclose the tank in a recycled fridge . . . and stick the whole works out in the sun to generate a constant supply of “free” hot water?

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