Working on a solar water heater!

[sueiris]

would love to see details on this. Dealing with Frozen water as well and trying to figure out solutions to my areas with no electric.

 

[tigger19687]

Your location is not listed so I have no idea where you are located.
Here in MASS that would not work very well, and if you don't have Sunlight hitting it all day it won't work at all.
What about over night ?

Just an FYI on the Expense of heated bowls. I have an Extension cord going to the coop (out of the way) to a big Heated Dog Bowl, uses 25watt power. This is adequate to keep water free of all ice... it is currently 2 degrees outside here.
This is a VERY low electric draw. I would NEVER use a 250W deicer on anything but a large fish pond. I have one in my 1000gal fish pond. I see people use this on a 5 gal bucket, that is over kill and potential for fire.

If your temps get below 25 you should try it. Cost was $20 at TSC.

 

[CapricornFarm]

I tried a solar water heat with manure back up. It gets a few degrees warmer than outside on a sunny day but not effective so far. I could not get the manure to compost to provide the heat. I think i need more and perhaps different ingredients.

 

[tigger19687]

My compost tumbler has been dead cold, and it is full of 1/2 composted crap plus the extra I put on it the other day .

I was just outside, 4F, 'Real feel " is -16F that may mean the windchill.

Heated Dog bowl is working GREAT, Fish pond still has a 2 foot clear water around the pond heater but is 1 inch frozen in all other places. Fishes are happy