Hot Water?

[Katy-did]

You do have your hands full Katy. Have you considered looking into a rooftop water heater? like for a swimming pool? You can of course do laundry with solar heated water. When I used powdered detergent, I would dissolve the amount in about a quart of hot water, then adding it to my washing machine. It saved a lot on hot water.

I hadn't (I'm quite new to all of this), but I'll start googling around. Thanks!

 

[~gd]

A black rubber hose left out in the sun full of water gets very hot, as does a "camping solar shower" which is a 5 gallon thick black plastic bag with a shower nozzle that you can get from any camping department (e.g. at Wal-Mart) or store (e.g. Bass Pro, Cabela's), so I'm sure just about any black container should do the job on a sunny day

Yep I managed to burst a hose That way. I turned it off at the house and what should been the open end

 

[Joel_BC]

A black rubber hose left out in the sun full of water gets very hot, as does a "camping solar shower" which is a 5 gallon thick black plastic bag with a shower nozzle that you can get from any camping department (e.g. at Wal-Mart) or store (e.g. Bass Pro, Cabela's), so I'm sure just about any black container should do the job on a sunny day

Yeah, the people above who mentioned that black color on containers results in more efficient heating are correct. And moolie is really onto something, with the hose idea.

I had neighbors who were getting their little homestead set up on a very limited income. They made a hot water system (for showering and washing) from a long length of black poly pipe - probably (as I recall) 3/4-inch inside diameter, and at least 60 or 70 feet long. They coiled the pipe, with incoming water at one end and - by a certain point in the day - hot water available at the other end (which had a valve on it). This could be mixed with cold water for comfortable showering. It was a low-input-pressure system, so the coiled pipe was positioned in a sunny spot on a roof to use gravity to contribute to the outflow.

 

[Denim Deb]

Katy, I hear ya on the dishes. There's just my hubby and I now, but he uses a TON of pots and pans for cooking. And, he doesn't do dishes. If he runs out, he'll just go out and buy more, or do just what he needs. The rest he sticks in the oven. My dishwasher is broken, so I have to do dishes by hand. This is what I do for washing dishes. And, I'm pretty sure I'm using less water and electricity than if I was using the dishwasher. For dish soap, I got the Dawn Direct Foam, then when it got empty, added regular Dawn and water back to the bottle. I don't recall now how much Dawn I use since I drew a line on the label. Oh, and my sink has 2 basins in it.

Put your stopper in the sink. Then, using hot water, add just as much water as you need to get your dishcloth wet. Put your least soiled dishes in the sink. Then, put some soap on your dishcloth, and start washing dishes. Add soap to the cloth as needed. I put the dishes in the other sink while I'm doing this. When all of these dishes are washed, take them one at a time and rinse them off over the first basin w/hot water. This will keep your water hot and will gradually fill the sink. Stick more dishes in the sink, and repeat the process.

I've found that by the time I have a full sink of water, I'm out of dishes that need to be washed as well as room to put them.

 

[moolie]

Moolie, I have VERY fond memories of my grandmother (who was the ultimate in frugality) washing clothes with a long black hose stretched out in the sun. Every so often she would prop open the kitchen window an inch and use it to do dishes. I would use that technique as well except I'm trying to cut back on water and hope to use rainwater for laundry.

Get yourself a rain barrel with a tap on the bottom (or a rubbermaid garbage can and separate "rain barrel tap") and hook your black hose/s up to that. Then connect a nozzle on the end that has a shut off--we have a watering wand that came with this, and the wand disconnects from the shut-off piece so I can either use the wand or just the shut off (as for when I want to connect to a sprinkler). Then you have your black hose full of rain water so it can heat in the sun

I know this works, because I have to be very careful to spray that first hose-full of water from my rain barrel over a wide area of the lawn to dissipate the hot water before proceeding to water anything important.

 

[moolie]

Put your stopper in the sink. Then, using hot water, add just as much water as you need to get your dishcloth wet. Put your least soiled dishes in the sink. Then, put some soap on your dishcloth, and start washing dishes. Add soap to the cloth as needed. I put the dishes in the other sink while I'm doing this. When all of these dishes are washed, take them one at a time and rinse them off over the first basin w/hot water. This will keep your water hot and will gradually fill the sink. Stick more dishes in the sink, and repeat the process.

I've found that by the time I have a full sink of water, I'm out of dishes that need to be washed as well as room to put them.

I do this too, but don't use the foamer

 

[Denim Deb]

I only use the foamer cuz I got it on sale one time and figured I'd try it. I tried it and liked it. I think I use less soap doing it this way, but don't know for sure.

 

[moolie]

I do have a foamer for hand soap in the "powder room" (aka useless bathroom that doesn't have a tub/shower) but we use bar soap everywhere else. Don't tell anyone, but I just put dish soap in the foamer--takes very little and (I hope) no one knows I don't actually buy liquid hand soap.

 

[Corn Woman]

The solar shower we use while camping gets HOT HOT HOT and has to be mixed with some cool water to even be used for a shower but for washing clothes and doing dishes it's great.

 

[the_whingnut]

When we wanted hot water after loosing utilizes we would hook up 75-100ft of garden hose color doesn't matter and lay it on the roof in a zig-zag pattern from the top to bottom with a nozzle on the end let it fill up or fill it and you have enough hot water for a few Navy showers and hand washed laundry. At east enough for a couple of guys. Navy showers if you don't know is water on, get wet, water off, soap up and scrub, water on, rinse , water off no more than 20 secs of water each time. Water consumption is based off how long water is on and size of nozzle.