Fun with the Sun

I’m busy building the Powerful Mark V (Speed Racer Reference) Solar Water Heater. It’s finished but I need to wait until next weekend to tie it into the houses water.

As I quick side project I thought I would solve the worlds water problems.

There are lots of places in the world that have limited or no access to clean drinking water. Whether it’s due to geography, pollution or because the small town they live in tried to cut corners and rebuild the city water system on the cheap, messed it up and had to wait to rebuild again until Obama handed out stimulus checks for “Shovel Ready” projects, people need clean water.

So I built a quick solar powered still.

I took one of the bottles I had in the Solar Heater Mark I and attached a hose I had from the Washing Machine, these screw right on. One the other end I attached an empty bottle.

I dug a hole about ½ inch deep behind the Solar Heater Mark I. I put the empty bottle in that hole and put the full bottle back in the heater.

As the sun warms up the water in the heater it will evaporate, filling the empty bottle with warm water vapor. As this warm water vapor comes in contact with the cool plastic that is touching the ground it will condense.

The droplets of distilled water will collect in the empty bottle giving me pure clean drinkable water.

This set-up is just a test model. I figure I can build a bigger system using two 10-gallon cans and tie it to the main house water with a valve and use an aquarium pump to supply my house with clean distilled drinking water on tap.