Solar Shower

Like most of my projects, I decided to make the shower out of durable recycled and dirt cheap materials because spending a fortune on materials would kind of defeat the purpose.

The cutoff bin at Home Depot is always on my visit list and I scored some premium grade cedar siding cutoffs for about $10.00 and used some old redwood I had lying around for the frame.

When assembling the overlapping siding, I used a little bead of exterior adhesive along with 1” staples to secure the siding.

After much thought, I came up with an open end “Bazooka” solar heater made of a scrap 4.5” pipe, 6’ long with two legs to keep it steady. 90% of my projects are built with thrown away scraps from the local tank and service companies that work for the oil and gas industry. Note the old oil field pump house I scrounged for free to house my water well components. Putr a screen on the open end of the pipe to keep birds from nesting in it.

On the business end, I welded a piece of scrap steel along with a valve and fittings I procured free of charge from the scrap bin at the local valve shop. If welding isn’t an option, a trip to the hardware store and some 4” black sewer pipe with a few reducers will work just as well. The shower head was from a clearance rack at WalMart. Total cost, around $15.00 and with a ¼ thick steel collector and cedar siding, it should last at least 20 years, even in our harsh environment.

The inside looks nice and the plastic clips are to hold towels and clothes. The brand new heavy duty door hinges only cost a buck at the local Habitat for Humanity store.

You simply fill the tall end with a garden hose in the AM, and wait for it to heat up. Even as small as the collector looks, I get really nice 8-10 minute showers from it. The only down side is right after the sun goes down, it starts to “thermal” and if I wait too long the first part of the shower is chilly but the end is still warm.  If I use it in the late afternoon, it’s fantastic! The views hard to beat, and so is solar power.

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