Tiny House Listings. GREENPOWERSCIENCE. Building a Parabolic Solar Hot-Water Heater using 123D. My first step was to do a calculation to figure out if my idea was crazy. I started with my goal: Make the solar equivalent of the hot-water tap on a coffee machine. How much power do I need? Lets say I want to fill up my mug with hot water in about 15 seconds. That means I'll need to do about 1 liter per minute starting at room temperature (~20°C) and ending at tea temperature (~80°C). That's a 60°C temperature change, and water has a heat capacity of 4.18 kilojoules per kilogram °C. How big of a mirror is that? In most places, on a clear sunny day, there's about .8 kilowatts of sunlight per square meter. That was a lot bigger than I could make, but it gave me an idea of scale.
Brilliant Newfoundlander Invents the Solution! PARABOLIC TROUGH REFLECTOR SOLAR WATER HEATER GREEN POWER. Less than $1 a watt DIY MAKE YOUR OWN SOLAR PANEL (PART 1) Window Mounted Solar Hot Air Furnace (Aluminum Soffit Based)