Any ideas out there about how to do hot water for washing, showering, etc. in the event of loss of our usual taken for granted water resources???? (Other than boiling water, one pot at a time over a wood stove, or propane stove, etc.)

-- Rita Lowitt (rdlowitt@pacific.net), March 09, 1999

Answers

Hot water for washing:

There are solar shower kits available that cost anywhere from $10 to $40. They can provide up to 4 gallons of 110 degree water in 3-4 hours. They are available from Nitro-Pak (1-800-866-4876). Real Goods probably has them too (located in Hopland, Mendocino County)

Ed

-- Ed Cooper (ed@edcooper.com), March 09, 1999.

Hi, you can take an existing hot water heater and with bricks underneath it build a fire space for small pieces of wood and use it as a wood-fired hot water heater, even small kindling and scraps of wood will work. I have used hot water heaters like this before, and it works great.

-- Raven Joy (ravingjoy@stones.com), March 09, 1999.

For hot water now or in Y2K land I have a solar assist on my existing hot water tank. It saves on energy and money now, and if the power goes out one can at least drain hot water by hose to needed areas. In winter it gets pretty warm, summer quite hot.

Also, hottubs keep water quite hot long after the power has gone off and there are solar heaters available for them.

-- Jane Pritchard (jsjjane@sonic.net), March 09, 1999.

Hi,

These two water heater ideas are posted over in the Millennium Salons forum (the "Communications: Global" link on the home page). The first one's some directions on how to put together one of the greatest little alternative systems I've ever seen (and used). They come from a friend of mine in Berkeley, named Kurt. I used to live on a little farm in northern Minnesota with him and his family. In the warmer months of the year we used this system to produce one of the greatest technological blessings mankind ever bestowed on itself: Hot Water.

Like Raven (I think!) was saying, this thing uses a just a little bit of wood to keep that blessing coming. I always thought Kurt had gotten the plans from Mother Earth News. But a few months ago I wrote and asked him if he still had them... Here's his reply:

Date: 15 Jan 1998
From: "Kurt Kessner" allykurt@LanMinds.Com
Subject: Re: Wood Water Heater

Yo,

I don't know if drawings are necessary. I'm proud to say I made the whole thing up myself. Here are some ramblings that a handy person should be able to use to put the thing together without drawings. If a person isn't handy they're in trouble and don't need to even think about doing it. If they ARE handy, they should be able to figure it out.

The system requires a GAS water heater. An electric one might work. You'd just need to check out what the bottom looks likes. The reason for this will reveal itself later.

Take or leave the heater outside and remove the gas burner unit from the bottom and discard. The underside of the tank itself will be concave; apparently for scooping the heat. Now, if a person is REAL handy and can use a welder, they could work up a little cylindrical wood burning chamber underneath there with a hinged door but I just simply went to the brick yard, bought some FIRE BRICK (normal ones will crack and break with the heat) and dry stacked them in a semi circle, staggered like building blocks, with a diameter slightly larger than the water heater and then set the sucker (waterheater) on top. Here again you can get fancy and bevel the bricks with your trowel and mortar them together with a nice concrete footing but it all depends on your level of expertise. As you well know, ours worked well enough and we didn't even burn the house down or anything. Which reminds me... That's another reason why the gas water heater is most desirable. It has a chimney that comes up through the center of the tank; perfect for the wood smoke.

Next, you plumb it up. Cold water feed goes in the bottom, the hot water comes out the top. Use flex copper and flare nuts so the system is flexible for installing replacement units when the old ones burn out. Here again, this is a project for someone with a basic knowledge of plumbing.

The system of course requires pressure. If you have a well, you have a pressure tank. The trick is to get the pump to work without the grid. If you have a generator-fine. Can you visualize our old pump down there in the pump house? I always pictured that if things went to hell, I could set a bicycle up down there on a frame that held the back wheel slightly off the ground. Then I would take the tire and tube off the back wheel and find a v-belt, perhaps from an old combine or other some such farm machinery, and rig it from the back wheel to the pump flywheel. "Hey, I'll peddle for your shower if you peddle for mine." A ten speed would have provided all the speed and pressure that that old electric motor used to produce.

In the years that our wood fired heater was in service (not in winters cuz it woulda froze and we had plenty hot water as a by-product of the wood furnace) we burned out one and I installed a second. The 1st one came out of the basement so it didn't cost anything, and the second was free as well. I got it from a plumber or somebody. Anyway, it's burner was broken. A person should be able to pick up truck loads of them with broken burner units for little or nothing. Clean 'em out a bit and a small arm load of seasoned oak will be plenty for 20-40 gallons of STEAMING hot water. Do you remember turning on the hot water and nothing came out cuz it was all LIVE STEAM rising to the ceiling? Ya had to mix a LOT of cold water with that shower, brother!

Oh that reminds me, don't forget the pressure relieve valve. You don't what any steam explosions.

---

The thing worked like a charm, was wonderful. But don't forget that steam release valve...

Here's another simple system from Richard Bloom in Oregon...

---

Hi, Here is the simplest water heater that I have built and used.

I, my wife and 4 children, at the time, eldest 6, youngest a toddler, lived in a 1 room, 10'X24' cabin. I had a 55gal drum painted "Flat Black" on the roof. It was gravity fed from a spring, way up the hill. I filled it the previous night after use.

When I got home from work, about 10 hrs of summer daylight, the water was so hot I had to put a second hose bib (faucet) for cold water blending. We washed each child then rinsed each one. I was last and got whatever was left. Believe me, I always had a little extra just for running down my back for relaxation.

This was used in Oregon, just west of the cascades leading into the Willamette Valley. We used it into the fall before the wood stove was needed. Once we started burning wood, I strapped a soft copper pipe to the upper flew, out the window and up to the drum. If you install a check valve just before the drum on the hot water pipe and another check valve just before the down pipe gets to the stove, you have a free, self cycling water heater.

I always left the bung (that's the large plug in a drum or keg) just setting in its hole, no pressure that way.

I hope this helps someone in some small way

If any body knows where I can find plans or information for a "RAM" water pump, please let me know.

Richare,
rfbloom@uswest.net

-- Bill (billdale@lakesnet.net), March 10, 1999.