Solar Water
Low-cost plastic solar water heater that saves up to 70% in LP gas consumption in the home and serves as a storage tank for drinking water.
The first area of opportunity is detected in the importance of the use and high cost of LP gas in homes and its strategic role in the production of sanitary hot water, since in countries such as Mexico up to 54% of energy consumption is used for this activity, which is considered a basic service for adequate sanitary conditions in homes.
Secondly, there are the high costs of commercial technologies to take advantage of solar energy in the domestic sphere in relation to the low purchasing power of most of the population. Proof of this is the Mexican case, since 1970 the first solar heaters began to be marketed to produce domestic hot water in homes, 52 years later less than 7% of households have commercial equipment that allows them to take advantage of this renewable energy to improve their quality of life.
In Mexico there is little use of the abundant resource that solar energy represents in the domestic environment for the generation of hot water for sanitary use, which means that families continue to spend a significant part of their income on paying for the most popular energy sources such as LP gas and electricity.
Of the 35 million existing homes, only 2 million have a commercial solar water heater, despite the fact that for more than 50 years this equipment has been offered in the national market, so the majority of the population does not use this clean and renewable energy.
Therefore, an investigation was carried out using data from INEGI and interviews with users who do not have solar thermal equipment, yielding the following information:
- The main cause of this problem is the low purchasing power of most of the population, which allocates its precarious resources to meet basic needs such as food, housing and health, to which we must add that in many poor areas there are public safety problems that hinder the maintenance of equipment.
- The second cause is that despite having a commercial solar heater in the home this does not ensure a sufficient and constant supply of hot water when weather conditions are not ideal for solar collection, such is the case of Mexico City whose rainy season can last up to 7 months, so it is necessary to have support systems or equipment such as heaters or tank heaters that operate based on LP gas or electricity which increases costs between $ 2000.00 and $ 3000.00 to which must be added the energy expenditure they represent.
Our solution consists of an innovative solar heater 65% cheaper than the solar heaters that currently exist in the market, which allows annual savings of up to 70% of the LP and natural gas consumed in homes for the production of domestic hot water.
Another function it has is to serve as a storage tank for drinking water, which is of great importance in countries that suffer from water shortages such as Mexico.
We developed a new technological proposal that simplifies processes and reduces the number of components substantially lowering manufacturing costs as well as those associated with its installation in homes where we propose new schemes in the hydraulic network.
We resort to the concept of self-contained solar heaters where the solar collector and the thermal storage tank are part of the same structure, replacing metals with long life and low cost plastics.
Our proposal is specially designed for the climatic and socioeconomic conditions of Latin America.
We validated our prototype in a real environment for more than 18 months and obtained excellent results, so we are looking for help for its massive launch in Mexico and all Latin America.
the concept of the project is a solar water heater that also serves as a storage tank for drinking water and whose cost is equal to that of a common storage tank.
https://repositorio.unam.mx/co...
based on the study carried out in 2014 by the University of Mexico, we took up the project and developed a technological innovation related to the geometry of the self-contained solar heaters.
One out of every three households in Mexico cannot meet their energy needs for lighting, cooling and thermal comfort, to the detriment of their well-being and quality of life.
Academics who have analyzed the issue estimate that this phenomenon, which directly affects access to human rights, impacts up to 36.7% of all households.
For 46.6 million people in Mexico, LP gas for domestic consumption represents an expense that substantially affects their scarce economic resources, but since it is an indispensable product, they have to allocate fewer resources to other basic needs such as food, health, housing and education.
In Mexico, around 54% of the LP gas consumed in a household is used to produce hot water for sanitary use, which is indispensable for personal hygiene.
A family can consume up to a 30 kg LP gas cylinder each month, which has an approximate price of $ 35.00 US, the official minimum wage in 2022 is $ 60.00 US per week, thus demonstrating the strong impact that spending on this energy has on their economies.
Although Mexico, like most Latin American countries, has one of the highest solar potentials in the world, less than 7% of households use this renewable energy to produce hot water for sanitary use, which allows them to rely less on fossil fuels. Of the 35 million households, less than 2 million have a commercial solar water heater, mainly due to the high cost of the equipment compared to the low purchasing power of most of the population.
A commercial solar heater has an average cost of $ 500.00 US, which can mean more than 2 months of income for a family.
To solve this problem we developed a low-cost plastic solar water heater that can supply 100% of customer water for sanitary use for 8 months a year, for a household of 4 adults.
Our plastic solar water heater has a manufacturing cost of $ 100.00 US and allows users to recover their investment in less than a year since it reduces by 50% the LP gas cost, which means an annual savings of $ 140.00 US.Another benefit of this new solar heater is that it reduces the carbon footprint of households avoiding the annual discharge of 360 kg of GHG derived from the savings of 120 kg of LP gas, with a useful life of more than 20 years and requiring zero maintenance, it becomes the most economical and efficient alternative worldwide to take advantage of solar energy in the domestic sphere to improve the quality of life of the poorest and mitigate global warming.
now let's look at the costs using a plastic solar heater.
The main advantages of our project are its rapid scalability and low implementation cost. In Mexico there is a growing water shortage which affects mainly the poorest families, which to cope with this problem have to acquire plastic tanks to store drinking water, in Mexico these containers of liquid are called tinaco and have become a staple in homes. These tanks have a capacity of about 1000 liters and are generally located on the roofs of homes where they are exposed to direct solar radiation and serve only to store water, we detected a great area of opportunity and redesigned this product to be able to take advantage of solar energy and produce hot water for sanitary use, after 2 years of research and development we managed to create the first solar water tank in the world.
Our solar water heater has the same cost as a common water heater, it is manufactured using the same materials, processes and machinery.
Every year more than 1.5 million solar water tanks are sold in Mexico alone, with the main buyers being low-income families.
In Mexico and throughout Latin America there are hundreds of companies that manufacture tinacos or plastic tanks to store water, so it is not necessary to invest in facilities, machinery and transportation for delivery to the end user.
This transition in the design of water tanks in Mexico does not represent any cost for the government or consumers since it fits perfectly with the conventional processes used by the industry of this product to supply the market demand, a transition that will be accelerated by consumers themselves eager to invest their money in a product that will generate great savings for many years.
The advantages of our proposal and how it would be implemented in homes are detailed below.
In the image above we can see the process of heating water for sanitary use using a heater that runs on LP gas.
The solar water tank project arises as a social enterprise that seeks to contribute to improve the quality of life of the poorest families in Mexico as well as to become a technological alternative to combat climate change. We are students graduated from the Colegio de Estudios Científicos y Tecnológicos del Estado de Jalisco, Mexico. We belong to low-income families and we have directly experienced the problem we are trying to solve, thanks to this we were able to develop the most appropriate and beneficial solution.
Since 2020 when we started the project we have achieved great progress ranging from appearing on major websites related to ecology and sustainable development to position ourselves in major technology competitions nationwide, as well as achieving important approaches to the industrial sector of our country.
We carry out a deep research on solar collectors, storage systems, thermal insulators, solar potential of the different regions in Mexico.
We have a patent application related to the technological innovation that we develop, and we are supported by a law firm interested in the environment and sustainable development, Monteverde y Asociados.
We currently have a prototype through which we have been able to validate in a completely satisfactory way the viability and efficiency of our proposal.
We have taken business training courses in institutions such as FOJAL.
We have designed and completely structured all the stages of the project, as well as we have the technical and administrative support to start making an impact throughout Latin America.
We achieved an important innovation to combat climate change and reduce poverty, we have the preparation and potential to implement it globally but we require the promotion and support of an international organization such as SOLVE, which gives visibility and support to all sectors of society.
We obtained our data on the state of solar energy in Mexico from governmental sources such as INEGI, SEMARNAT, SENER, among others, as well as from the most important universities in our country such as UNAM and Tecnológico de Monterrey.
We have personally known the operation of two tinaco companies, we know how this product is manufactured, costs, suppliers, marketers, profit margins and everything necessary to make a realistic and accurate planning. We have several maquiladora companies interested in manufacturing this new product.
We conducted market surveys on the street to see the interest of consumers in our proposal, the added value we offer in relation to the competition and to corroborate the total acceptance of our solar water heater.
We validated our proposal in a home for 18 months to measure the real impact on LP gas consumption.
- Taking action to combat climate change and its impacts (Sustainability)
- Prototype: A venture or organization building and testing its product, service, or business model
For over 70 years in Mexico began to market the first solar water heaters to produce domestic hot water with the aim of reducing the consumption of fossil fuels in the home and generate economic savings to families by taking advantage of the great solar potential available in the region, but to date this has not been achieved due to the high cost of commercial technology in relation to the low purchasing power of most of the population, proof of this is that of the 35 million households in the country only 2 million have a commercial solar water heater to provide hot water for sanitary use.
To address this problem of high cost we developed a solar heater made of plastic material to produce hot water for domestic use, which is 70% cheaper than any of the solar heaters that exist in the market, this innovative solar heater also serves as a storage tank for drinking water with a capacity of 1100 liters which makes it ideal for homes that lack a continuous supply of the liquid.
Our proposal is based on a technological innovation that simplifies and unifies the processes of capturing solar energy and its storage in the form of hot water using the concept of self-contained solar heater, in which the solar collector and the thermal tank are merged into a single structure. The big problem that we have detected in the commercial technology of evacuated tubes and flat panels is that its different components are very expensive and with a very limited price-efficiency, highlighting the storage systems which are based on steel containers with different layers of thermal insulation which aim to keep the liquid at a high temperature compared to the temperature of the surrounding environment. The higher the thermal differential, the more insulation is required, which increases the cost proportionally.
Our plastic solar heater has several advantages over current commercial products:
A plastic-based solar heater can supply a larger volume of water, sufficient for a family of four adults, at a comfortable temperature suitable for personal hygiene, which can be used directly without the need to mix in the final stage with cold water to adjust to the comfortable temperature, unlike the current commercial technology of heaters using evacuated tubes, where a small volume of water reaches temperatures of 50°C to 70°C but when the user wants to use it, it must be mixed with cold water to bring it down to a temperature between 30°C and 37°C, but its great disadvantage is that very little hot water is generated, which forces users to resort to support systems based on LP gas, natural gas and electricity to meet their demand for domestic hot water.
Another great advantage of our plastic solar water heater is a greater energy independence since it can satisfy up to 100% of the demand in a household of 4 adults for 7 months a year without requiring another energy source and 5 months a year, the coldest ones, it can reduce the consumption of LP or natural gas by 50% in the production of domestic hot water, features not offered by any of the systems or products that currently exist in the market worldwide.
Finally, we have the advantage of the low cost of scaling and massive implementation of the technology, since its manufacturing process is identical to that of a common water tank, that is to say, the same processes, machinery and materials are used that are currently used by hundreds of companies throughout Latin America dedicated to the manufacture of plastic containers for drinking water.
1- That our technological proposal is recognized in the environmental, governmental and industrial sector as an efficient system to economically access the use of solar thermal energy in the domestic environment to improve the quality of life of the entire population as well as reduce its environmental impact derived from its energy consumption. To achieve this goal we are participating in national and international competitions in order to publicize our project and obtain support either financially or otherwise from organizations related to the SDG 2030.
2- Promote among end consumers this new proposal to take advantage of solar energy in the home.
To achieve this we will be conducting advertising campaigns on social networks and approaching civil organizations related to the environment and efficient use of energy requesting support for the dissemination of our proposal.
3- Secondly, we will be implementing a campaign for the population to adapt the almost 30 million water tanks that exist in Mexico so that they can use, even partially, this renewable resource which will allow them to reduce by 40% the consumption of LP gas in the production of hot water for sanitary use, this method is currently being used in about 50 homes with the mentioned result, being its great advantage the low cost of adaptation which is around $ 50.00 US and including labor, obtaining immediate benefits from the first day.
4- Seek links with government agencies so that our proposal is considered as a technological resource in the fight against climate change and to reduce energy poverty of the most vulnerable population.
5- That 10% of the water tanks produced in Mexico by 2023, some 150,000 units, incorporate solar geometry to take advantage of this energy source.
We will begin to grant free technology licenses to companies that commit to offer affordable prices to end consumers.
6- Begin to expand the technology to other Latin American countries.
We have already identified several companies in Chile, Argentina, Colombia and Brazil with which we will begin to establish technological alliances.
7- Consolidate as a social enterprise, for which as soon as we have a constant source of income we will carry out all the legal procedures to have a legal figure that will allow us to integrate the human resources necessary for its operation.
Our proposal is based on the basic technology of solar heaters that use the thermosiphon effect and those of the self-contained type in which the solar collector and the hot water storage tank are the same structure. We created a new solar geometry that takes full advantage of the hydrodynamics generated by the natural convection phenomenon of water, as well as the way in which solar radiation strikes the earth's surface due to the changing position of the sun during its daily path at different times of the year. A geometry that allows a wide angle of capture of direct and diffuse radiant energy throughout the day, whether it strikes vertically or laterally, while promoting an efficient capture and absorption of thermal energy which is transferred to the water mass through the agile internal convection currents, which reduces losses by conduction, convection and radiation to the external environment that surrounds it.
When the first water tanks appeared in Mexican homes, they took advantage of the pressure of the hydraulic network to place them strategically on the roof of the houses and thus take advantage of the pressure by gravity to dispose of the stored water; an unexpected effect was that when exposed directly to solar radiation the water layer near the surface increased its temperature substantially being much higher than the temperature of the water supplied by the outlet located at the base of the container, however no one gave importance to this fact since they did not see any practical application. Subsequently, in 2014, a detailed scientific study was conducted to measure the potential of this phenomenon with the intention of using it in the production of hot water for sanitary use, however, it was not possible to find a solution to dispose of the mass of hot water or how to preserve its temperature for a longer time, let alone how would be the integration method to obtain the maximum use of this resource in the home.
(See Study of the thermal behavior of water for residential use in concrete and polyethylene tanks in a warm-sub-humid climate. UNAM)
https://www.scielo.org.mx/scie...
In 2019 we took up the problem again and solved two very important obstacles:
1-Access easily and economically to the volume of hot water located at the top. 2-That the incoming cold water for filling the tinaco would not mix with the hot water layer.
By means of two simple and novel adaptations we were able to solve these problems, so we implemented them in a 1100 liter tank located in a house inhabited by four adults, achieving during 6 months 100% of the sanitary hot water supply and in the remaining 6 months we were able to save 50% of LP gas thanks to the process of preheating the water by using solar energy; Currently and for two years we have been using this system to provide us with hot water in our home.
In order to increase the performance and autonomy of this first system, two important objectives were identified:
1- To conserve heat for a longer period of time in order to ensure its availability 24 hours a day and to enable energy replenishment until the next solar exposure.
2- Increase the temperature and volume of the liquid mass intended to serve as domestic hot water.
To achieve these objectives we developed a design with an inverted truncated cone area in the middle part of the container which allows to capture solar radiation in a wide angular range of incidence, this shape also allows an efficient thermal transfer by conduction to the water mass generating convection currents that allow to quickly remove the heat from the collector area, transporting it to the cylindrical area located in the upper part of the cone where it accumulates and increases its temperature throughout the day. The cylindrical area has the purpose of facilitating the implementation of a low cost thermal insulation such as expanded polystyrene, bubble plate with aluminum cover, etc., which allows the user to have hot water for a longer period of time.
Given that the thermal power level of this solar heater is in the low temperature classification, which together with its low manufacturing cost can be considered as a complementary system to existing commercial technologies, which allows doubling the volume and temperature of hot water with a lower consumption of fossil fuels. This preheating process allows to reduce the size and cost of the support systems when using solar energy to generate domestic hot water, which is undoubtedly very beneficial for all parties involved since it allows to offer products at a more accessible price for a greater number of the population, which will increase the demand for them, thus encouraging the different industries whether they are domestic solar water heaters, gas boiler / electricity and even technologies that use wood burning for this purpose.
State of the art
We did an extensive research where we corroborated that there is nothing similar in the state of the art so we are processing a utility model application that gives us the legal rights to exploit without any restriction our innovation, thanks to this technology is planned to have quite affordable costs for most of the population throughout the region.
Our plastic-based solar water heater can preheat a volume of 270 liters of water allowing to have the thermal gain up to 12 hours after not receiving solar radiation with a temperature higher than 10 °C than that offered by a common water heater, which reduces the final energy consumption in the production of hot water for sanitary use, generating significant economic savings for families as well as a substantial decrease in the carbon footprint of the homes where it is used.
- Manufacturing Technology
- Materials Science
- Mexico
We are currently promoting the adaptation of common water tanks so that families can take advantage of this resource in their homes. We have 23 homes where this method is already being used to save LP gas and electricity in the production of domestic hot water.
Once we position our innovation in the industrial sector we estimate that upon entering the market in March 2023 we estimate that 150,000 homes could be benefiting from a plastic-based solar water heater in the remaining months of the year, given the size of the market in Mexico and the lack of competition for our proposal that offers water availability and energy savings, it is an entirely feasible goal to capture 10% of the consumers of this product. This estimate is based on the results of market surveys, where the total number of potential buyers choose a solar water storage tank over a common water storage tank due to the multiple and great benefits that are exclusive to the former.
If we achieve the recognition and media support of organizations linked to the environmental, sustainable development and climate change mitigation sectors, we will have the favorable conditions to detonate the project very quickly throughout Latin America, so that in a period of 3 years the consumption of hydrocarbons in homes will have been reduced by 50%.
The main barrier we have faced in Mexico is the lack of vision, true interest and knowledge on the part of the business sector, government and even the educational sector to even analyze citizen proposals even when they have technical and scientific support and have demonstrated their effectiveness and viability in real environments.
We are currently trying to finance the mold for the commercial prototype which has a cost of $ 10 000.00 US which is the only thing we require to launch our solution to the market.
We have already entered into agreements with different manufacturers of molds and tanks so there is a completely defined and clear roadmap to realize the project in Mexico.
Reto Zapopan business accelerator and incubator located in Guadalajara, Jalisco, provides mentoring and business linkage.
Our business model is based on two sources of income based on the industrial property of the technological innovation we develop:
1- Product sales, in this case of the solar water heater to intermediaries such as construction material stores, hardware stores, home builders and direct sales to end consumers through digital commerce platforms.
2- Sale of licenses and technology concessions.
We intend to take advantage of the second function of our solar water heater, that of serving as a storage tank for drinking water, to achieve rapid acceptance by consumers, since for more than 38 years there has been a growing demand for this type of product to address the water crisis being experienced worldwide.
The added value of our solar water heater is that it allows families to make great savings in the consumption of energy such as LP and natural gas as well as electricity.
Another advantage is the enormous environmental benefit it generates by avoiding the generation of greenhouse gases, this seen on a large scale represents a very viable and economical alternative to mitigate global warming.
The fact that our innovative heater is manufactured with the same materials, processes and machinery that are currently used to manufacture common water heaters allows a rapid scalability with a minimum investment thanks to the hundreds of companies dedicated to the manufacture of these products, so that through the maquila and technology licensing it is possible that the product is available in a very short time in large geographical areas.
The next stage of our project is the manufacture of the definitive commercial prototype for which we already have the technical advice and service providers required for this purpose, which has given us precise information on the amount of capital required and to obtain this resource we are looking for organizations interested in sustainable development, We are looking for organizations interested in sustainable development, care of the environment and the fight against poverty that recognize the importance of our achievements up to this point and decide to support us either through financial donations, technical advice or simply dissemination and promotion of our proposal, which we hope will help us to get investors to whom we will offer participation in royalties and other benefits generated.
We require $15,000.00 USD to obtain the first mold of the commercial version and to have the initial stock of the product for its launching to the market.
The mold has an approximate cost of $10 000.00 USD and a stock of 40 pieces has a cost of $5 000.00 USD, that is all that is required to start the project.
With one mold, about 20 pieces of this solar water heater can be manufactured daily, with a manufacturing cost of $100.00 USD per piece and a selling price of $150.00 US.
Monthly a mold would be producing 480 pieces, generating profits of $4 800.00 USD, which would allow us to fund the acquisition of another mold in less than three months, doubling the production volume.
Our expenses for the first stage would be of administrative type since we have an office in which we work 3 people with a global cost of $1 500.00 USD per month.
Since we intend to manufacture the product through the maquila service, this allows us to dispense with facilities, equipment and labor, so we would simply be managing sales.
We have already received offers from several maquiladora companies to cover the cost of the molds in the case of orders of more than one thousand units.
environmental entrepreneur and inventor
social entrepreneur