Design and construction of a simple solar water heater without a pump for use in homes as a mean of energy conservation

Abstract

Hot water is essential both in industries and homes. It is required for taking baths, washing clothes and utensils, and other domestic purposes in both the urban and rural areas. Hot water is also required in large quantities in hotels, hospitals, and industries such as textile, paper, and food processing, dairy. In fact hot water is required mainly for purposes of hygiene and bathing. At present hot water demands are met mainly by the use of electric heaters. Unfortunately rising energy costs, environmental concerns, and the depleting nature of the current primary energy sources in use have made electrics heaters less attractive, this is because the primary energy source of electric heaters utilized are mainly the fossil fuels. In addition, the demand for electricity is rapidly growing; thus within those periods when hot water demand is highest the electric energy facilities are often overstretched, resulting in some cases to power shading especially in developing countries. Problems can be handled by taking off the energy demand for hot water purposes from electricity. Fortunately, the technical and economic feasibilities of solar hot water systems (SWH) are well established and they have found domestic and commercial applications.