Can a Metal Solar Still Provide Clean Water in Any Weather?

[caters]

I had an idea about how to make an almost all metal solar still.

Here is my idea:

Take metal and shape it into a wide and shallow bowl.
Put an insulator on both sides of the metal so that the heat stays inside.

Take some pipe and put it above the bowl.
Take coiled pipe and put it in a metal container filled with cold stuff like ice for example.
Put a spigot at the very end where you have a quart or gallon bucket to collect the water.

This can be built during a sunny day and as long as the weather ranges from it being mostly overcast with sun peaking through the clouds to mostly sunny the sun does its job of heating the water. The bowl there collects rain and if there is a storm it might overflow a little but that gives water to plants and a little bit more water won't hurt if you have well draining soil so that is a plus. You also might need more buckets on sunny days after a storm.

The reason it needs to be wide and shallow is that if you have it deep it will take longer to fill and distill but narrow will make it take just a few minutes to overflow and you don't want that. It being shallow means that yes it is more likely to overflow than deep but it won't take as long to distill which is key to survival and it being wide means more surface area and volume which means that it fills up slower but again will distill quickly.

 

[edward]

Hmm a solar still that uses ice.

 

[lisab]

Hey caters !

Can you draw a picture of this? I'm confused, and having a hard time "seeing" it.

 

[berkeman]

Are stills legal?

 

[caters]

for water yes.

If you use it for ethanol it is illegal unless you have a permit but I use it for water and water only so I have no problem with permits.