Solar heated water bed

solarman216 · 18-07-2021, 23:38

Having had the sun all day today and not only charged the batteries up to full capacity but also had 80+ degrees C in the hot water tank, usually we just run it off to avoid boiling, but today once I had sorted my motor which was taking all of my time I sat down and and realised I could heat the bed with the excess, so let me explain to those of you unfamiliar with water beds, a typical double bed contains around 1000Ltrs and this is usually heated with a 300 watt electric pad which for us comes on whenever we run the mainstream generator but with the sun at the moment has not been happening, we also heat the bed with a small radiator that comes on when we use the boiler to heat the water, and likewise the boiler is not being used, so the bed has gone a little cool, (beauty of a waterbed is turn it up in the winter and down in the summer all thermostatically controlled) but begins to get uncomfortable if too cool and that is what prompted this train of thought.

So decided to turn the boiler itself off but the circulating pump on, great till I visited the bathroom, rad the only rad we have was heating the bathroom far too much so turned it off, sorted bed up to normal summer temp lots of wasted heat into the outside oil boiler but would have thrown it away anyway , so here I am just about to have a bath after the Mrs and we still have a full tank at 60 degrees C, Rick

Flying Torquewrench · 24-07-2021, 20:48

Rick, excuse my ignorance but do you live “off grid”? As you mention the mainstream generator.

That must be quite nice to be able to regulate the temperature of the bed. Especially with the heat we just had.

solarman216 · 24-07-2021, 22:46

Not just off grid but have no services at all, water comes out of the ground, pumped filtered and stored, generator runs on Kerro last batch was 27p Ltr, I do add some lube oil to it but 1975 Listers will eat almost anything and be quite happy with it, sewage goes into 2000 Ltr two stage septic tanks, boiler for hot water when needed also runs on Kerro, over one Tonne of batteries stores the electric from the sun and this time of year we have more hot water than we can use courtesy of evacuated tubes all 60 of them, and yes temperature controlled bed is absolute bliss, best thing we ever did was to decide to live here, no neighbours, loads of parking, and quiet, Rick

Flying Torquewrench · 25-07-2021, 08:11

The reason for not having any services is that purely because of the location of the property or did you make a conscious decision to have non connected? You are completely self sufficient by the sounds of it, minus the kerro. No wonder you harvest the solar energy.

Living somewhere quiet is pure bliss. We only have a couple of houses in close (100m+) proximity and we have more horses coming past then cars. You can just sit outside in silence and listen to the birds singing.

solarman216 · 25-07-2021, 21:05

Nearest house is 500 Mtrs away past the allotments, can hear loud motorbikes on the new bypass when the wind is in the right direction other than that strimmers on the allotments or our own generator are all we hear.

When I asked the electric co how much to put power down here they quoted a ridiculous amount of money so I told them where to go, Rick

Flying Torquewrench · 26-07-2021, 22:01

Sounds like a little piece of heaven.

Electric companies are a law onto themselves. We have overhead supplies to our houses. The supply to our next door neighbour runs through our garden via poles. We have a lime tree which grows quite close to the line and needs cutting from time to time. The electric company normally checks every year which trees needs cutting and they cut them free of charge. I tend to do it myself as I don’t like other people coming onto our property. Especially somebody I don’t know. To much stuff standing around for prying eyes.

Anyway we hadn’t seen the electric company since 2018 and by now our tree was growing through the wires. So I called them last month and asked them to switch the power off so we could trim the tree. The first thing she did was starting to calculate what the fee would be for them to shut the electric off for two hours. Before she finished I told her not to bother and that I would wait for the next storm as that would short circuit the the line and they would be out in the middle of the night to repair it free of charge. All of sudden the fee was waved and I could have the power switched off a week later.

solarman216 · 26-07-2021, 23:06

That reminds me of a time quite a few years ago when I was converting a Chinese Restaurant into a Veterinary Surgery, the floor was rot so was ripped up and as we needed a concrete base the area was excavated only to discover two live gas pipes that were too high for our convenience, so rang the gas co, only to be told it will be weeks before they can come, need less to say we could not delay the job for anything like that time, accidentally hit one of them with the breaker now emergency gas call was made as we had a gas leak, road dig up and sorted within a few hours, happy days, Rick

Flying Torquewrench · 27-07-2021, 09:23

Different departments I suspect. The bill will probably have also been cheaper then doing it as planned works.

Currently trying my luck with Severn Trent Water. I need to put some gate posts in and need to know where the main water pipe runs. Don’t really want to hit the mains but trying to get info out of them is like getting blood out of a stone.

Need to wait till I see one of the teams working in the village as they are normally very helpful.

The electricity guy’s gave me their contact details as they are local and would pop over if I needed anything. Avoids having to go through the bureaucracy.

Banshee · 27-07-2021, 11:02

Quote:

Originally Posted by Flying Torquewrench

Different departments I suspect. The bill will probably have also been cheaper then doing it as planned works.

Currently trying my luck with Severn Trent Water. I need to put some gate posts in and need to know where the main water pipe runs. Don’t really want to hit the mains but trying to get info out of them is like getting blood out of a stone.

Need to wait till I see one of the teams working in the village as they are normally very helpful.

The electricity guy’s gave me their contact details as they are local and would pop over if I needed anything. Avoids having to go through the bureaucracy.

Drop me a PM mate, I have mates at Seven Trent and Souths Staffs in the planning teams, I'll be able to get the drawings for your property from ArcGIS for you

Flying Torquewrench · 27-07-2021, 12:31

Cheers Zac, PM on its way.

18-07-2021, 23:38	#1
solarman216 Off road maniac Join Date: Dec 2009 Location: Bexhill on Sea Vehicle: Y60 Patrol Me, 3 ltr Mrs Posts: 17,431	Solar heated water bed Having had the sun all day today and not only charged the batteries up to full capacity but also had 80+ degrees C in the hot water tank, usually we just run it off to avoid boiling, but today once I had sorted my motor which was taking all of my time I sat down and and realised I could heat the bed with the excess, so let me explain to those of you unfamiliar with water beds, a typical double bed contains around 1000Ltrs and this is usually heated with a 300 watt electric pad which for us comes on whenever we run the mainstream generator but with the sun at the moment has not been happening, we also heat the bed with a small radiator that comes on when we use the boiler to heat the water, and likewise the boiler is not being used, so the bed has gone a little cool, (beauty of a waterbed is turn it up in the winter and down in the summer all thermostatically controlled) but begins to get uncomfortable if too cool and that is what prompted this train of thought. So decided to turn the boiler itself off but the circulating pump on, great till I visited the bathroom, rad the only rad we have was heating the bathroom far too much so turned it off, sorted bed up to normal summer temp lots of wasted heat into the outside oil boiler but would have thrown it away anyway , so here I am just about to have a bath after the Mrs and we still have a full tank at 60 degrees C, Rick __________________ Ex banger racer now off road maniac Lokka on the front with manual hubs Diff lock on rear 3 inch SS straight through exhaust Manly winch bumper with 13000 lb winch 10 spike ground anchor, with multiple straps and blocks Super strong body cills capped with scaffold pole 20% stronger springs all round aggressive off road tyres on wheels so just swap. Aim to get stuck and be completely self sufficient in extraction, love getting muddy, 2ft deep is good but rare.

24-07-2021, 22:46	#3
solarman216 Off road maniac Join Date: Dec 2009 Location: Bexhill on Sea Vehicle: Y60 Patrol Me, 3 ltr Mrs Posts: 17,431	Not just off grid but have no services at all, water comes out of the ground, pumped filtered and stored, generator runs on Kerro last batch was 27p Ltr, I do add some lube oil to it but 1975 Listers will eat almost anything and be quite happy with it, sewage goes into 2000 Ltr two stage septic tanks, boiler for hot water when needed also runs on Kerro, over one Tonne of batteries stores the electric from the sun and this time of year we have more hot water than we can use courtesy of evacuated tubes all 60 of them, and yes temperature controlled bed is absolute bliss, best thing we ever did was to decide to live here, no neighbours, loads of parking, and quiet, Rick __________________ Ex banger racer now off road maniac Lokka on the front with manual hubs Diff lock on rear 3 inch SS straight through exhaust Manly winch bumper with 13000 lb winch 10 spike ground anchor, with multiple straps and blocks Super strong body cills capped with scaffold pole 20% stronger springs all round aggressive off road tyres on wheels so just swap. Aim to get stuck and be completely self sufficient in extraction, love getting muddy, 2ft deep is good but rare.

25-07-2021, 21:05	#5
solarman216 Off road maniac Join Date: Dec 2009 Location: Bexhill on Sea Vehicle: Y60 Patrol Me, 3 ltr Mrs Posts: 17,431	Nearest house is 500 Mtrs away past the allotments, can hear loud motorbikes on the new bypass when the wind is in the right direction other than that strimmers on the allotments or our own generator are all we hear. When I asked the electric co how much to put power down here they quoted a ridiculous amount of money so I told them where to go, Rick __________________ Ex banger racer now off road maniac Lokka on the front with manual hubs Diff lock on rear 3 inch SS straight through exhaust Manly winch bumper with 13000 lb winch 10 spike ground anchor, with multiple straps and blocks Super strong body cills capped with scaffold pole 20% stronger springs all round aggressive off road tyres on wheels so just swap. Aim to get stuck and be completely self sufficient in extraction, love getting muddy, 2ft deep is good but rare.

26-07-2021, 23:06	#7
solarman216 Off road maniac Join Date: Dec 2009 Location: Bexhill on Sea Vehicle: Y60 Patrol Me, 3 ltr Mrs Posts: 17,431	That reminds me of a time quite a few years ago when I was converting a Chinese Restaurant into a Veterinary Surgery, the floor was rot so was ripped up and as we needed a concrete base the area was excavated only to discover two live gas pipes that were too high for our convenience, so rang the gas co, only to be told it will be weeks before they can come, need less to say we could not delay the job for anything like that time, accidentally hit one of them with the breaker now emergency gas call was made as we had a gas leak, road dig up and sorted within a few hours, happy days, Rick __________________ Ex banger racer now off road maniac Lokka on the front with manual hubs Diff lock on rear 3 inch SS straight through exhaust Manly winch bumper with 13000 lb winch 10 spike ground anchor, with multiple straps and blocks Super strong body cills capped with scaffold pole 20% stronger springs all round aggressive off road tyres on wheels so just swap. Aim to get stuck and be completely self sufficient in extraction, love getting muddy, 2ft deep is good but rare.

24-07-2021, 20:48	#2
Flying Torquewrench Senior Member Join Date: May 2011 Location: Worcestershire Vehicle: Nissan Patrol Y61 2.8TD Posts: 1,152	Rick, excuse my ignorance but do you live “off grid”? As you mention the mainstream generator. That must be quite nice to be able to regulate the temperature of the bed. Especially with the heat we just had.

25-07-2021, 08:11	#4
Flying Torquewrench Senior Member Join Date: May 2011 Location: Worcestershire Vehicle: Nissan Patrol Y61 2.8TD Posts: 1,152	The reason for not having any services is that purely because of the location of the property or did you make a conscious decision to have non connected? You are completely self sufficient by the sounds of it, minus the kerro. No wonder you harvest the solar energy. Living somewhere quiet is pure bliss. We only have a couple of houses in close (100m+) proximity and we have more horses coming past then cars. You can just sit outside in silence and listen to the birds singing.

26-07-2021, 22:01	#6
Flying Torquewrench Senior Member Join Date: May 2011 Location: Worcestershire Vehicle: Nissan Patrol Y61 2.8TD Posts: 1,152	Sounds like a little piece of heaven. Electric companies are a law onto themselves. We have overhead supplies to our houses. The supply to our next door neighbour runs through our garden via poles. We have a lime tree which grows quite close to the line and needs cutting from time to time. The electric company normally checks every year which trees needs cutting and they cut them free of charge. I tend to do it myself as I don’t like other people coming onto our property. Especially somebody I don’t know. To much stuff standing around for prying eyes. Anyway we hadn’t seen the electric company since 2018 and by now our tree was growing through the wires. So I called them last month and asked them to switch the power off so we could trim the tree. The first thing she did was starting to calculate what the fee would be for them to shut the electric off for two hours. Before she finished I told her not to bother and that I would wait for the next storm as that would short circuit the the line and they would be out in the middle of the night to repair it free of charge. All of sudden the fee was waved and I could have the power switched off a week later.

27-07-2021, 09:23	#8
Flying Torquewrench Senior Member Join Date: May 2011 Location: Worcestershire Vehicle: Nissan Patrol Y61 2.8TD Posts: 1,152	Different departments I suspect. The bill will probably have also been cheaper then doing it as planned works. Currently trying my luck with Severn Trent Water. I need to put some gate posts in and need to know where the main water pipe runs. Don’t really want to hit the mains but trying to get info out of them is like getting blood out of a stone. Need to wait till I see one of the teams working in the village as they are normally very helpful. The electricity guy’s gave me their contact details as they are local and would pop over if I needed anything. Avoids having to go through the bureaucracy.

27-07-2021, 12:31	#10
Flying Torquewrench Senior Member Join Date: May 2011 Location: Worcestershire Vehicle: Nissan Patrol Y61 2.8TD Posts: 1,152	Cheers Zac, PM on its way.