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Learn how to build a solar water heater and cut down on your overall power usage. You can build a system that heats on demand, or just hook your existing electric hot water system up to a homemade solar panel and some batteries. Click here to read more - DIY Solar Water Heater and How To Build a Solar Water Heater
One of the main components of the solar hot water heater is the solar collector. This collector is usually a box like fixture with the water lines running through it. A plate painted black at the bottom of the box would absorb the suns energy and heat up, the box would have a glass cover that would act like the cars windows and intensify and hold the energy inside.
A solar hot water heater that is located on the roof. It's basically a large light collector with tubes running over it. Depending on the temperature, water will run through these tubes to get heated up, and circulated back to a large tank or even back to an existing electric boiler. The idea is that the boiler won't need to use as much electricity, as the water is already hot from the solar heater.
In the winter you should still be able to heat your water unless you live in an area with a lots of freezes. In that case you would have to use an active solar heater with a pump to circulate the water. A passive system has no moving parts and relies on the principle of hot water flowing up and the cooler water staying lower.
