When I was a child, we had an elementary school science fair.  Our whole year, we had been studying sustainable sources of energy, and I took a special interest in solar power.  It did not make any sense to me that we were continually bathed in the sun’s energy, yet every type of fuel we were using was either non-sustainable, environmentally detrimental, or downright hazardous.  Solar energy did not require the burning of any substance, gave off no toxic byproducts, and involved practically no risk to those who were managing or using it.  As long as the sun would shine, there would be an inexhaustible supply of energy for a little to no cost to the consumer.

 For my project, I decided to build a solar water heater in Pheonix.  At the time, I had no access to solar power cells, so I would have to use conventional power for that, but that was not important to my experiment.  I wanted to prove that the sun alone could heat water rapidly and efficiently, which could then be used for a number of purposes.  Consulting with my father, we built a small wooden box with a glass panel.  Inside the box, we installed a coil of copper tubing that extended to holes on either side of the box.  From there, we connected regular plastic tubing to a pump, controlled by a small rheostat regulator to control the speed of the flow of water.  The control, which was a five gallon bucket, would be kept out of direct sunlight and at room temperature. 

 I would run the solar water heater from noon to 1 PM every day for a week, checking the temperature of the water in the control once every five minutes.  The data was then compiled to show the consistency to the increase in water temperature.  The second phase of the experiment ran the same test at different times of the day and at different water speeds to track other variables.  I was able to prove the sun would heat the water to our target temperature, and with the inclusion of solar cells, the experiment could be run from sunrise to sunset with no draw from the outside grid.  Essentially, I could make water hot all day long.

 While a very simple experiment, I was able to show that solar water can be heated effectively to be used in climate control, heating swimming pools, or even just making a cup of tea.  Our long term energy solutions can be found in the environment, and our sun is chief among those solutions.