Homemade solar hot water

[MarkP]

I still like the idea of the simple box type solar water heater. Using a discarded water heater tank it would be about the cheapest system you could put together. It would also be one of the least efficient but that won't matter if you are prepared to work within the limits of what it can provide. If you use it for preheating in front of a conventional system you may not even be affected when the sun doesn't shine. Of course you also won't have any idea whether you just wasted your money either.