(727) 834-0438
2803 Troy Road
Springfield Ohio 45504
The first hot showers in the off-grid lab were firewood stove-heated.
Water added to a large pot with a bilge pump dropped in.
Although appreciated (and of course necessary), this was a time-consuming makeshift shower.
The bilge pump was connected to one end of a garden hose that delivered the shower to the other end of a garden sprayer.
It was messy means to a shower.
Later, I evolved to using black pipe placed out in the sun.
The black pipe seen in the photos is actually over 200 feet of thick-walled hard poly pipe (typically used for underground water lines).
I draped the black pipe wherever I could, all over the roof, then down the side of the garage, back and forth on a wire fence...
However, the solar-heated water pipe was an ineffective and unreliable.
Inconveniences, such as waiting till 11am when the water in the pipe was hot enough to be able to take a shower. One minute too long and it could be the end of you (scalding at about noon).
In the summer, the heated water was at times unbearably scalding, with no means to adjust the temperatures.
When the hot water ran out, the shower was over.
The date is July 24, 2021 and presently the hot water is heated for free daily via direct connection to solar panels and has a manual cut-off switch (a breaker).
Belated Update: There are 24 solar panels which comprise 6 strings of 48v using 100-watt solar panels. This is a perfect array to power the 110v water heater with ease and has been working flawlessly for years.
Any residual unused energy that is no longer needed, if not cooking, and after the waterheater is hot enough, the residual is passed to a 48v MPPT Charge Controller to keep the battery bank topped-off.
Since it's not possible to use the incorporated AC thermostat that was born into the AC hot water tank using DC energy, requires one to monitor the water somewhat (may require washing hands and doing a dish or something).
Although the safety switch incorporated within the hot water tank will trip the unit off at a certain temperature, and although there is a pressure-relief spigot to ensure the tank doesn't burst, this method of more panels has its merits, too.
With more panels allows more freedom to not be conscious of the temperature in the tank so much (basically because it's almost guaranteed to be too hot to shower). So what seems to work is to either allow the hot water tank to trip off by itself or whether I manually turn it off, the longer it takes the water to cool down in the tank to a temperature my body is agreeable to seems to work perfectly to keep me up all night long waiting for that perfect temperature (periodically washing a dish or hands to test the waters).
Do yourself a favor, remove the ac thermostat and install a DC thermostat; thermostats are cheap and can be bought online.
Adapting to the never knowing what the temperature will be has been relatively painless. If I notice the water is too hot to do dishes or shower, I divert the hot water to the washing machine or give my sick chicken an epson bath.
Not to change the subject but...
Aside from the first winter out here, the subsequent winters have been a breeze due to a fire-wood stove adaption.
The Stove has its own page allocated toward explaining what worked, and what did not work.
Since the stove stays fired 3/4 of the year anyway, cooking is anytime-ready.
Shown is my second attempt to make a decent pizza.
(Later on the phone)
"Hello, Dominos?!"
Adjusting to the Northern Solar Sun
With the additional solar panels and deep-cycle batteries that have been added here to requisite Ohio-climes, available power has finally become almost entirely stabilized.
As already mentioned elsewhere within this site, the amount of solar panels and batteries I brought to Ohio from Florida was totally insufficient in Ohio's Climate.
I hadn't even taken into consideration that there is snow here (and less sun and wind in general).
Finally, almost three years of saving and striving, all appears to be at the point where a YEAR-round stabilization of available power has been attained.
anybody see my yard?
To be honest, there's still two hurdles to overcome, the largest of which is the 220v pump that is placed in our well.
Plans are to allocate a solar panel array and battery bank JUST for the pump alone (as opposed to sharing off of any of the other battery banks here).
Shows one of 6 Charge Controllers. 
Energy production inspection
My initial premise to plan is to link 20 (qty) 6v batteries in series (x 2 in parallel) to total 120v x 2qty. This is actually just a dream because I don't have the 5-thousand dollars to allocate toward the 40 batteries (see that? The problem is compounding already), nor the cost of the additional controller(s) and solar panels and wire and cable and quick disconnects and fused cut-offs and...the plan suddenly doesn't look so attainable by today's economic clime.
phew, glad I got that off my chest.
The aforementioned is however the ultimate aim as it would be an awesome test overall as to what can and cannot be attained using this method.
The other option is to simply pull the 220v pump out of the well and drop down a 24v or 48v model.
However I already chased this rabbit with the local well contractors in my area and ended up less optimistic.
After several calls, and even less amount of replies from the contractors, I'm beginning to realize that this might be a task better suited for me to do personally.
It seemed the contractors were clueless or not so interested in the project. Their prices varied with statements such as, "well that's if something doesn't go wrong", and "the price is variable upon..."
Then I was hit with their prices (to simply pull up a pump, and drop another in the hole).
Another someday task takes a back-burner.
click the image for an Awesome Drink Report 
If your device doesn't play the video, try this .webm version instead (or just right-click and download the video to your own computer for the smoothest play).
Are you feeling like you want to support this lonely website?
Today's Date is Saturday, 26-Apr-2025 05:39:10 -05
Feel free to visit my Lonely Stifled Online Garage Sale
Or browse my stuffy stifled eBay Store .
Open until further notice.
2014-2025 Kenny Hendrick and the Public Diary. All Rights Reserved.