Solar Shower – Warm Water at 10:30PM!
It was a bit late last night when I got around to taking a shower before bed, but I thought I would see if the solar shower still had warm water. At 10:30PM I took a battery powered camping lantern with me and set it outside the shower. This provided more than enough light, although I would like to rig up a permanent light for after dark in the future.
The water was still warm! So the 20 gallon reservoir holds the heat for a while. It was fairly warm during the day (84), but not extremely hot.
I have plans for improving this shower: Add another layer of plastic over the top to form an insulating barrier as well as adding 2" foam insulation to the back side against the wall – this would insulate the water and help it maintain heat even better. I will post again when I do these updates. Hoping to use this shower into October, even here in cold northern Wisconsin.
Go to Free Solar Shower Plans to see how you can build a shower like this for around $25!