Solar hot water - New, bigger corflute collector

It's still a test, but I've started making my new, bigger corflute collector.

This time I'm using my new glue gun to make everything stick, and I'll be using two sheets of corflute glued on to the back of the collector as the insulation. By doing so I can make it a bit bigger than the first test, and make better use of my glass. I will glue the entire thing to the glass to give it some structure.

At the moment it's upright, full of water, and leaking all over my front steps.

It turns out making a solar hot water service involves an awful lot of water leaking out of stuff. In fact, generally speaking, I've noticed that a lot of my projects involve leaks.

This time I anticipated my poor craftsmanship, and held off on painting it until I had repaired the inevitable leaks. I've marked where the leaks are so it should be easy enough to fix them.

And I forgot to sand the surfaces so the glue would stick better. The hot glue gun glue sticks well to the corflute but does't seem to like the black hose. I suspect roughing up the surface a little will make it stick better.

Solar hot water - corflute collector part 3

Get ready for another riveting post on the corflute test collector!

I mounted the collector into a foam box and painted it with blackboard paint. I told you it was going to be exciting.

 Now I'll stop watching silicone dry and watch paint dry for a bit.

Actually its starting to look a bit more like something that might actually work.

To date all the experiments with water involved, haven't worked as well as they might have, but I suppose I did actually learn a few things along the way. And that is the point. I'm just not so good at this waiting business. I tend to rush my waiting.

All thats left to do is put the glass on and attach it to the drink bottle. Today I'm off to get a broken hot water service I'm hoping to use as a storage tank for the hot water I create with the real system. Either that or just undo a few screws and then leave it in my back yard for 20 years.

Solar hot water - Corflute collector part 1

Corflute collector part 1 will indicate to all just how bad I am at applying old silicone sealant to a home made corflute solar collector.

This gives some indication of the general idea. Tubes attached top and bottom will carry water up through hundreds of tiny tubes in the corflute (white thing pictured here side on) where they will be collected at the top into a bigger tube (black and end on) and sent to the storage tank. Actually that pic doesn't really look like its anything to do with this project but I promise it is. It's looking down the length of pipe that runs across the bottom of the sheet of corflute. The black hose will be siliconed on and a stopper put in place to block one end, and the inlet hose from the storage tank will be attached to the other end. The same will be repeated across the top)

My camera is really struggling to take pictures of the corflute, I think because its so bright white.  (I might have to make photography a "thing").

According to the instructions there is meant to be a nozzle that isn't packed with solid dry silicone. 

My work looks nothing like the suggested use pictured on the tube. My work looks like leftovers from "ice your own birthday cake day" at an infant school.


Oh well. At least I'll get some more practice when I have to do it all over again tomorrow, after I test for leaks.

Solar hot water - Corflute collector part 2

No photo today because my photo-journalistic skills are simply not up to the task of making pics of drying silicone look interesting.

There were only two small leaks in my corflute collector, but they will take at least until tomorrow to dry so there will be a part three to the construction of the test corflute collector.

In spite of my poor craftsmanship I actually have a tip or two to pass on. 

• Black hose is best worked after it has been laid out in the sun for a day or so to straighten it. Tie one end to a fence and the other to a brick or something, so you can pull it tight.

• If you cut the black tubing along the side of its natural bend it will sit straight against the edge of the corflute. For some reason its tempting to make your cut on the inside of the curve. Doing so will make your hose pull away from the corflute when siliconing.

• Get a grownup to do your silicon work if you are as unskilled as I am.

• Make sure your flutes go from top to bottom before you make any cuts or glue anything. I didn't make the error of getting it sideways, but I can imagine it would be a pain if I did.

• Create a slight slope on your top cut in the corflute so that any bubbles will flow up to the exit hose. Bubbles are not your friend and any place where air can be trapped will collect air as soon as your solar collector starts working.

• making solar hot water is much more exciting than I make it look in this list.

Solar hot water - Corflute

Just as there is for most things in life, there is a product that seems to be perfect for collecting solar hot water. Luckily it's something people throw out because its also good for advertising.

Corflute is a plastic product that we in the western world need a surprisingly large amount of. This is odd because we dont really use the corflute. We use it to make us want to use other things. Different things. Things other than corflute. We use corflute to make advertising signs. These signs are rarely, if ever, trying to sell us corflute. More often than not these signs are trying to sell us real estate.

A few days ago, when doing some research, a found a website where someone very clever had used corflute as a solar collector. Painted black, insulated, and covered with glass, this should make a very useful solar collector. I cant remember the website and have been trying to discover it again. If you know it, or you made it, please let me know and I'll link to it. The genius behind using this is in the plumbing. It seems a lot of people have made solar collectors from copper pipe. This involves a stack of soldering and a stack of time, money, and skill. I have time, but no skill and no money. Corflute is just what the doctor ordered. The secret is to cut some plastic hose lengthways, and slot this onto a sheet of corflute top and bottom. Silicone it all up and you are now the proud owner of a few hundred pipes all plumbed together. It should only take a few minutes and even fewer skills.

The plastic that corflute is made of doesn't conduct heat very well but its thin, and because each tube is square, and has a huge surface area of water carrying pipes that we can expose to the sun, it should work well.

If you need some corflute and don't want to pay for it, you could try putting your house on the market and stealing your own real estate sign from your front lawn.

Re-reading this post makes me wish I had arranged some sponsorship from whoever makes corflute.

corflute corflute corflute