In summer of 2018, the Happy Child Foundation became a winner in the competition “We are city” held by the local steel mill Zaporizhstal. We were awarded UAH 100,000 ($3850 USD) for four thermosiphon solar water heaters for Happy Home number 1 in village Kalynivka, Chernihivskyi Raion, and in home numbers 3, 4, and 5 in Ukrainka and Lyubimivka in Mykhailivskyi Raion.

The mounting hardware and installation were purchased by the friends of the project (with special thanks to Ramina from Lviv). In May 2019, solar collectors began working at full capacity, providing large foster families with hot water.

The fact of hot water flowing from the tap without electricity is quite impressive. Now a family can use 200-300 liters of hot water per day instead of 100 liters provided by electric boiler.

Additional electrical heating is required only on very cloudy days because water heats even through overcast skies. The only drawback is that the system must be drained when cold weather comes, but we hope to master this process and execute it without calling specialists.

If we could improve such systems and make them cheaper and year-round, it would be possible to provide residents of private and multi-storey buildings with extremely cheap hot water for at least six months. Besides the reasons of economy, this is also a significant decrease in dependence on gas supplies and coal for power plants and in such way we contribute to the fight against global warming.

We thank all donors and friends of the project and continue to develop green technologies in the children's village. We have plans for solar panels, heat pumps, greenhouses, mass tree planting in the vicinity, and a new waste disposal system.

If you can help us as a volunteer or consultant or provide financial support, please, contact us at happy_home@deti.zp.ua or +38 066 513 34 35 (viber).