Solar Hot water

[2liveque]

Me and the wife are seriously considering installing a solar hot water unit for our house. Anyone got any suggestions for a good, reputable company? How much would a basic unit run us? We live in lower HPP, pretty good sun each day.

[Cagary]

http://sunetric.com/whitepapers/solar-hot-water/

[punatic2]

That study seems a little less than clear. It's funded by HELCO, always a red flag to my suspicious nature.

Even if all it's assumptions are true to system life and its costs after assumed rebates it still should be compared to propane on demand.

Before I installed a solar hot water system I used one of the cheap ($100) on demand heaters. For a family of 4 it supplied our needs without a problem for around $10 per month and no storage tank to worry about or replace.

I am happy with my solar hot water system but could see replacement costs an issue. It has so far supplied all my needs with no requirement of additional inputs. I am off gird and think heating or supplementing from panels alone would be a nightmare compared to other options.

The plumbing costs for installing a solar hot water system seem a ripoff as they have inflated them to take advantage of a rebate number shuffle when comparing against component costs and reasonable labor costs. But isn't that always the case. (No offense meant to the entrepreneurs among us.)

[terracore]

This thread discussed it to death:

http://www.punaweb.org/Forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=14618&SearchTerms=solar,hot,water

as recommended, we went with Drainpipe. They were fast, professional, and we've never ran out of free hot water. PM me for details on cost etc.