It occurred to me today that I don’t think I have as yet talked about hot water. I am not sure why as it seems to be pretty central to operations at Ling’s Meadow.
We had always planned to experiment with a rocket stove to heat water for the shower and sinks, but in year one time ran away with us and we had to make do with a homemade solar panel system. If we are honest it only ever really took the chill off the cold water unless we had a few days of scorching weather.
It was a pretty simple design, using two radiators painted black under a glass cover to transfer heat to the hot water tank. Water was drawn through the system by thermosyphon (the natural circulation caused by heating the water). We had no way of monitoring the actual temperature of the water apart from the screams of the campers using it.