Solar Collector for Heat (Idea)

    All winter I really wanted to build a solar collector to heat the tank or even a geothermal well but I never had the time or money to invest in that project. One day though if I have less financial obligations and some free time I won't hesitate to make either system because it has been one of my goals from the start of this project. I had planned on building a solar collector made of probably black-looping PVC inside of an insulated box with a glass cover. I would drill a hole and place a thermistor inside the black PVC that would allow me to measure the temperature of water inside the pipe and compare it to the fish tank temperature. If the temperature inside was warmer than that of the tank I could activate a pump to circulate water from the tank through the heating loop with a controllable relay. The code logic would be simple and quick to program and the circuit itself would be very cheap (a few pennies for the thermistor, less than $10 for the relay, and less than $15 for the micro-controller if needed).