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Anyone know anything about solar panels and solar water heaters?

I've been doing some thinking about making a water heater for use when wild camping in a car*, my thoughts are here.  Does anyone have experience of anything similar, like those solar showers you hang up in the sun?

Steve (who needs to get out more)

* I know that if you have a car it's not really wild camping, what I want is to park up overnight, pitch the tent and be gone early AM.... without paying

Is there not somewhere either at work, or near to work, where you could shower?? - a council sports club for example, that might be open for an early morning swim and shower, etc. There are often good deals on long/medium term membership.

Your ideas sound great in theory, but solar panels do not come cheap. I wasn't too clear about exactly where this water tank would be situated, but if you were thinking 'in the roof-box' remember that there are weight limits to what can be supported on the top of a car. There may also be handling implications in having that much water sloshing around above the natural centre of gravity? (remember the 'Herald of Free Enterprise'?).

Having said that I am all for clever gadgets, and I can fully understand where you're coming from on this one. But it certainly does bring to mind expressions involving "sledge-hammers" and "cracking nuts"!

Why not keep the basic principle, but down-size it somewhat - get a couple of the solar showers and lay them on top of the roof box during the day. Then just empty them into a large drinks cooler (aka plastic thermos - see below) to keep warm overnight.

 This one, for example, holds 10 litres.

Or easier still, come to an arrangement at work that you can fill it up with hot water each evening before you leave to see you through the night. We use one of these when camping to keep all the left over hot water from the kettle in, so we have warm water 'on tap' in the tent when we need it. (See, my mind does work the same way as yours!!)

I'm sure there are plenty of other options and I don't have such a bad set up as things stand at the moment... But I'm always on the lookout for improvements!

Also, I have a strong urge to make something... especially if it means I can stay somewhere in comfort for free...

If I wasn't married and didn't have a young child, there is a good chance I'd be living in the woods in some home made sustainable development

I take your point about the weight though, I only plan on overnight stays ( because of the family) so I'm not thinking large scale here, I also want the space in the roof box!

I like the look of that big Thermos... I could modify that to have an inlet/outlet pipe and run the pump from the vehicle battery (you're right, solar panel is expensive but the water heater part can be made for almost nothing)

Thanks for your input!

Steve (Sledgehammer to crack a nut could be a personal motto of mine!)

water container wrapped in black bin liner in rear window ?

 or coleman hot water on demand waterheater/shower

I remember a portable camping shower thing that was produced long ago. It was basically a perforated hoop of tubing that went round your neck, connected to another tube that ran down to a foot pump bellows. You stood in a basin of warm water and pumped the footpump so that the water was forced up the tube, trickled down your body and was recycled into the basin.

So my point here is...why do you need a battery pump? A footpump would work just as well, even if you made the water squirt out a nozzle rather than a ring.

wasnt there a stovetop shower mentioned on here recently? i think it came from the cabelas site or somewhere like that.

you used the gas stove to heat the water.

Steve, we often stay on sites with little or no shower facilities. 

We use one of these in conjunction with one of the fold up water carriers - the submursible pump screws into the tap hole of the water container, we up-end the container on our multi-purpose BBQ/cooker/washing up/shower stand and shower in our swimming cossies wherever we fancy!     We either use hot water from the solar shower bags or we boil the kettle - we have been surprised how far one kettle of boiling water goes and as we use the Coleman dual fuel stove we create hot water very quickly. 

We tend to be in locations where waste water isn't a problem however others have suggested standing in a small paddling pool to collect the water if you are concerned about the detergent.

We find our system very straightforward, cheap to set up and very easy to use.

Zaccy123 said> Is there a bit of Pikey in you ?

Are you offering?  No, it's not Pikey that's in me it's a combination of Treehugger and Inventor!  I'm cutting down the commuting and fuel usage by camping on work nights (office is 85 miles away) and I would like to become completely self-sufficient if at all possible.  I come from a long line of Scientists and Engineers... but I work in a more "corporate" environment and I've just got this strong urge to just make something!

You see, I'm not looking for "practical" I'm looking for "free", I have a decent company car, a company credit card and a whole range of 4* hotels that I can legitimately stay in... I have chosen not do that though and I'm spending a couple of nights per week in my £25 tent.  The next step is to become even more basic and use renewable energy where possible, hence all this talking of building home made heat exchangers.

Thanks for all your input everyone, all points taken on board!

Steve

PS - Although I am turning increasingly Treehugger, I'll never become judgemental... If you want a V8 4x4 then you go for it!

Thanks for your concern.  I keep this a secret from the people I work with (you would though, wouldn't you...?) and no one has yet noticed that I have come to the office direct from a wet muddy field and have a car boot full of damp flysheet!

Steve

I think B chystie's idea is probably right about keeping it simple. What about using a water carrier that is painted black or something like that and use one of those pump showers you can get such as http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Camping-Electric-Pump-Shower-12V-or-Battery-Powered-NEW_W0QQitemZ8795303546QQihZ005QQcategoryZ19296QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Oh and I saw http://www.itv-thismorning.co.uk/NewsAndFeaturesArticle.aspx?fid=1220&tid=2 and thought of you.