Solar and propane

[Alex]

I heard that new buildings should have solar water heaters by the code since 2009.I expected propane price to go down.Not happening.
Not enough new construction I guess?

[TonyB]

Aloha,

Yeah, my plumber just talked me out of hot H2O on demand for solar water. What's everyone's experience with either of the two?

Mahalo and Aloha, Tony

[JerryCarr]

Alex, I'm no economist, but I think propane, being petroleum based, follows world market prices rather than local supply and demand trends. TonyB, there is a lot of previous discussion on this board about the merits of the water heating methods. Do a search, and you should get a lot of info, particularly about the "on-demand" gas units.

Cheers,
Jerry

[Daniel]

Solar water heaters work great. But there will be occations that you will need a back up. For us we use an on demand as a backup. Works out great and hardly ever need to buy propane. We haven't uesd the backup for months.

Daniel R Diamond

[Alex]

Jerry,I am no economist X10.But I thought the local profit part would be smaller and would make a difference.
Daniel,thanks for the info.

[missydog1]

Solar water heaters are wonderful as long as the sun shines, because you don't buy anything. It just makes hot water, no going to buy propane. This year I have hot water all the time, but if it starts raining again all the time I'll be hurting. (Mine is just solar-electric.)