I am in the process of coming up with the a hot water system that will work in a grid-down scenario and finally settled on this collector along with a 125 gallon storage tank and pump/control system.
https://hydrosolar.ca/products/xianke-xkph58-srcc-certified-evacuated-tube-solar-collector?variant=7021173899325&utm_campaign=gs-2018-12-17&utm_source=google&utm_medium=smart_campaign&gclid=Cj0KCQiAjszhBRDgARIsAH8KgvfgS1ajRQz9Wz_cNEqKYbuxpha5yGmWesd1mMOJTDoToF3NTmaWvNUaAipOEALw_wcB
The nice thing is that the 125 gallon water storage tank also could double up as potable water storage if you had to shelter in place and have something to drink. The fluid used to heat the water in the storage tank is in a separate loop using a glycol to water heater exchanger. The tank I am ordering has two separate glycol loops. One for radiant floor heating circuits and one for taking heat off the solar collector. Hot potable water for bathing and drinking/cooking is stored extraneous to those two heat exchanger loops.
The system is under $5K complete (not including installation), but the average DIY could take care of this in a couple of Saturdays, once a site was settled on. The collectors can be installed on the ground or on the roof (a little more complexity for installation).
I will do more on this if there is enough interest.
Add some cheap fresnel lens to the front and you will have a steam machine
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