Well I was thinking a trash to hot water on demand rig would be nice. That will take lots of water tight surface area. Then I remembered I had this, my old fire place heat exchanger, which was only made for air. Maybe? If I can weld a header on the open pipe ends?
Look up Thermosiphon. Thousands of ways to heat water for domestic use. Some cook stoves had water boxes. Hell our sauna stove has a 25 gallon keg full of boiling water. Best to temper it a bit before using it to wash up or your skin is going to blister bad and in a hurry. Note, do not put in a closed loop system for heating water w/o a pressure/temperature relief valve in it or someone is going to die.
I was just going to say Solar for water heating. We had a system built on the roof of the house to heat a swimming pool, worked amazingly well for many years, only problem was the water with all the minerals and pool chemicals would eat through or plug up the system! I would imagine with todays materials, a really long lasting system could be made, especially with way better materials! Edit to add:. This was in Aridzona, it wouldn't work very well in areas with out lots of sunshinen
If I do solar it will have to be closed loop with antifreeze because we get surprise freezes in spring and fall.
I did this system in 2010, with a small propane Rinnai back-up, It is still on the first 30# tank of gas. We even heat the master bathroom floor. Solar Water Heater | Evacuated Tube Solar Water Heating Collectors & Systems
1 inch, yeah about once a year on average here. I have seen golf ball and larger 3 times in 12 years.
There is plexiglass that is designed to handle impact, used for security. If it is that much of a deal one could make louvers to shield the panel during such storms. The solar water heating system out shines burning gas or electricity.
