[Greenbuilding] Batch Water Heater Tanks?

[Lawrence Lile]

Simple - a used hot water heater does the trick. Pick them up off the
curb. Price is right.  Strip off all the insulation.  You'll need a
shortie to fit inside a refrigerator.  

We've done things like this with old gas water heaters with dead
controls.  

Often old water heaters are thrown out for leaking, and those you don't
want to mess with.  Many are thrown out just because the electric
element burned out.  

An old water heater might be full of calcium, and there isn't a good way
to get rid of heavy deposits.  We never worried about this unless the
water ehater was really full. 

We made a great wood fired water heater by welding two old dead gas
water heater tanks onto a big drum with a wood stove door kit.  We'd
fire it with scrap wood, the chimneys running up the center of the tanks
served as a chimney, worked pretty well.  

Lawrence Lile, PE, LEED AP
Project Solutions Engineering
-----Original Message-----
From: greenbuilding-bounces at listserv.repp.org
[mailto:greenbuilding-bounces at listserv.repp.org] On Behalf Of
wmdorsett at sbcglobal.net
Sent: Saturday, February 09, 2008 8:45 PM
To: Greenbuilder list
Subject: [Greenbuilding] Batch Water Heater Tanks?

An old friend who has little money wants me to build a batch solar water

heater for her using the ol' tank in the refrigerator trick. You plumb 
it in series with the regular water heater, face it to the sun and put a

piece of glass over the door opening. On extra cold nights, you close 
the door preserving the heat.

The question is what do you ask for to get an uninsulated 40 gal. glass 
lined tank? For an upgrade on the tank, what do all of you recommend as 
a non-corrodible tank for this application? It has to handle line
pressure.

Thanks for your thoughts

Bill Dorsett
Sunwrights
Manhattan, KS

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