/sci/ - Science & Math

Sup, /diy/?

I have a lot of black plastic water pipe. In the summer, I turn off my electric water heater because it costs about $45-$100/month($540-$1,200/year) to run, depending on who is in my house.

However, I do prefer to have at least a luke-warm shower from time to time. What does /sci/ think about this design?

Essentially, the 3 valves can redirect water to the large coil of black piping in the summer and in the winter water is redirected straight through as normal. The black piping is removed int he winter and drained so it won't freeze and bust. Or, it's placed in a large bed of fresh hot horse manure where it will continue to function for making hot water. I even have a large 55-gallon, plastic, rain barrel. I could coil the black piping into it, fill it with water, paint it black, and sit it in the sun too. That way the water in the barrel will act as additional thermal mass to extend the amount of hot water being created a great deal.

I figure I can use this simple system as a hot water pre-heater and as the sole hot water heater while using the hot water tank as storage, (it's quadruple insulated for this sort of purpose already.)

The only problem I can think of is the piping getting too hot and melting just enough to allow the water pressure to burst a leak.

Ideas, thoughts?