Using a radiator as a solar panel

[Puggit]

Would it work?

Freecycled a radiator which was collected today. The guy who picked it up says he'll paint it black on one side and use it to produce hot water/heat in his shed.

Seriously?

[Muntu]

Works on the same principles as this I would imagine.

In the UK outside of summertime, I would imagine that it is about as much use as a chocolate dick.

[Morningside]

Sounds a good idea. Must try that.

Was thinking of a zigzagged hosepipe painted black inside a back box with glass top.

I suspect that the trick is holding the water inside the rad before pumping it into an old water cylinder.



Quick Google came up with this using a radiator as a solar panel.

[GTIR]

Didn't John Tickle do something similair on BB with a black bag and hose pipe?

[rlw]

Muntu said:

Works on the same principles as this I would imagine.

In the UK outside of summertime, I would imagine that it is about as much use as a chocolate dick.

Trust me, with the right woman you can have a lot of fun with a chocolate dick; messy fun agreed, but fun.

[Olf]

Puggit said:

Would it work?

Freecycled a radiator which was collected today. The guy who picked it up says he'll paint it black on one side and use it to produce hot water/heat in his shed.

Seriously?

That's racist surely.

[Simpo Two]

Olf said:

That's racist surely.

Equality in action - the other side is white.



However, he'll also need a gay radiator and a disabled radiator.

[paul.deitch]

It works at low efficiency +-50% I have been told. Useful for assisting pool heating etc.

[ShadownINja]

rlw said:

Muntu said:

Works on the same principles as this I would imagine.

In the UK outside of summertime, I would imagine that it is about as much use as a chocolate dick.

Trust me, with the right woman you can have a lot of fun with a chocolate dick; messy fun agreed, but fun.

Just watching her gobbling it down might be enough.

[grumbledoak]

I cannot imagine it'll get hot as such. Warm, in the summer, sure. But I cannot think of a reason to want tepid water in a shed; you cannot sensibly wash with water that's been through an old radiator, and you certainly wouldn't try making a tea with it.

Shame you didn't ask him!

[Olf]

grumbledoak said:

I cannot imagine it'll get hot as such. Warm, in the summer, sure. But I cannot think of a reason to want tepid water in a shed; you cannot sensibly wash with water that's been through an old radiator, and you certainly wouldn't try making a tea with it.

Shame you didn't ask him!

Terrible shame.

[Fort Jefferson]

Try this.

[Pothole]

Simpo Two said:

Olf said:

That's racist surely.

Equality in action - the other side is white.



However, he'll also need a gay radiator and a disabled radiator.

if he painted part of each side pink would it count for the gay quota? It's already disabled as it's no longer part of the heating system

[Tuna]

Put it under glass and it'll warm up quite well. Professional panels keep the volume of water down so as to get the maximum temperature increase. Our panels were up at 107 degrees centigrade this weekend (no water in them yet - they've not been commissioned)

[grumbledoak]

Fort Jefferson said:

Try this.

Are you seriously suggesting he's making a solar-heated bath, in his shed, from a scrap radiator? He'd be as well off rolling in dust like the birds!

[Olf]

Fort Jefferson said:

Try this.

I'm being lazy but looking at wiki you get this:

Natural gas in the U.S. is measured in CCF (100 cubic feet), which is converted to a standardized heat content unit called the therm, equal to 100,000 British thermal units (BTU). A BTU is the energy required to raise one pound of water by one degree Fahrenheit. A U.S. gallon of water weighs 8.3 pounds. So, to raise a 40-gallon tank of 55 °F (13 °C) water up to 105 °F (41 °C) would require (40 × 8.3 × (105 − 55) / 100,000) BTU, or approximately 0.17 CCF, at 100% efficiency. A 40,000 BTU/h heater would take 25 minutes to do this, at 100% efficiency. At $1 per therm, the cost of the gas would be about 17 cents.

doing some sums suggests you'd have to heat your 5 gallons of water to 40 deg C about 2000 times before you made your £30 back. In non-environmentally educated circles we call this a fking waste of time and effort.

[jeff m]

When I was in the Middle East we had a villa with a tank on the roof.
The tank fed the cold water taps and the water heater. The water from that tank was so hot that we just used it as "hot". Cold water, well cooler, was available from the hot taps as that had been sitting in the unused water heater and cooled by virtue of being inside an air conditioned building.

I believe the tank was blue

[Mattt]

jeff m said:

When I was in the Middle East we had a villa with a tank on the roof.
The tank fed the cold water taps and the water heater. The water from that tank was so hot that we just used it as "hot". Cold water, well cooler, was available from the hot taps as that had been sitting in the unused water heater and cooled by virtue of being inside an air conditioned building.

I believe the tank was blue

My old tank was white, but as you say, in the Summer during the night/early morning you used taps as normal - but then during the day you reversed them.