Sunshine Shower

When I come in from the hot humidity we face here in Nashville, TN USA it is nice to be able to not soil the master bath when I take a shower.  To that end I built my sunshine shower.  It only works when the sun is shining.  This happens to be most of the time in the summer. 

On the right side of the red barn shown is a flat roof where the hot water hose is laid across.

What I did was run 500 foot of 3/4 inch irrigation hose (cost about $50) in no special configuration around the roof.  I held it down with wires that connected to the roofing screws.  I loosened the screws and tied the wire then retightened screws.    This hose gets tangled easily and can be quite a frustration.

I will post a reply to get all of the photos in.

The Green hose goes up to a hand held plant watering wand.  The silver hose has been taken off of the cold water spigot under the tub.  The tub is not shown.  The black hoses go  TO and FROM the loop that is on the roof.    The flow direction was chosen randomly. 

The two “Y” adapters control the hot/cold mix and the intensity of the water flow.  The water will burn ones skin if not mixed with cold water.  It took me some time to study how to do this with readily available hose pipe parts.  These cost about $30. 

Again,  it is only hot when the sun is shining. 

It is nice to be able to repair any part of the system myself instead of calling an expensive plumber/electrician.    Could a family use this as a primary source of hot water?  That question has crossed my mind.  We will see how it works during our cold winters.  I just started using it about two weeks ago.

Here is the irrigation hose loop going through the ventilation grill.
I did not have to drill any holes.

This hose likes to kink so it cannot be run tightly around sharp corners.

The other photo is the humble shower head which works fantastically.

So we have free well water that is heated freely.
I like that combination!

We attempted to make a small version of this once but the smell from the plastic or or what ever the hose was made out of was so strong we wondered if we should be exposing our skin to it. We were only in that cabin for 3 months & did not bring the sun shower with us.

Do you notice plastic like fumes coming from your water?

I also wondered if we had used it for longer if the smell would have faded?

I think the irrigation hose I was using was meant for food crops.
There was never a smell of plastic at all.
Perhaps there is a food grade irrigation pipe available?

Thanks I'll keep that in mind if I ever build an other one.

The only thing I'd be a bit concerned about with that set up is draining the water off the relatively flat roof when it rains.  It looks to me like the water might build up behind each 'straight' bit of loop, which might cause problems with leaks after a couple of years. 

We have a rough and ready version of your system, with a coil of pipe set on a corrugated roof which allows the water to drain away.   It works really well except during really hot weather when the 'cold' water is too hot as it heats up in the pipe on the way to the shower room from the well, so we end up showering either in the morning or late evening when it's cooled off again.  I guess we could rig up a cold water tank somewhere, but for now the system is good enough for us.