Inventions

I love inventing things. It is one of the rewarding challenges that comes with my job and life. Recently I have been perfecting my solar shower. Last year, I had one in the greenhouse that was heated by filling a large coil of black plastic irrigation tubing with water. One end goes into a bucket and the other is attached to the cold water. When I am ready for a shower, I turn on the faucet and it pushes the hot water into the bucket. The bucket is suspended overhead and a toilet flapper lets out the water in a satisfying WHOOSH when you pull a string. This provides enough water for a long-ish shower. The drawback was that as soon as the sun went down, or if it clouded up at the end of the day, boom, no hot water.
The water in my new system thermosyphons into the bucket and it can be insulated. As water warms, it expands, causing it to rise. It has to go up in a continuously rising tube to work. One of my goals with this shower is to use parts and hardware that can be purchased at Fleet farm. Two black garden hoses are connected and provide the heating surface. In the picture, you can see the shadow of the heated water reflected on the bottom of the bucket. The jury is out on whether the volume of the hoses will be enough to heat the volume of the bucket, I'll keep you posted. I built the shower stall but my friend Mark Olson did the decorative joists on the top.