Are you required to have solar hot water?

[Julie Languille]

We'd like to do propane, but the solar company is telling us we have to have solar hot water.

Where would I go to find out for sure?

[Linchpin]

Here is the the bill that was passed.
http://www.capitol.hawaii.gov/session200...4_CD1_.htm

Of course the solar company trying to sell you something is not going to give you the whole story.

Look at section 2(4) regarding a variance.
If you have another appliance that uses gas, you CAN use an on-demand gas water heater.
Just got to go through the process.

[Peter Epperson]

Go solar. You won't regret it.

[tada]

The frustrating thing about solar hot water is you get all the hot water during the summer when you don't need it.

[terracore]

quote:

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Originally posted by Peter Epperson

Go solar. You won't regret it.

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Second that. It will pay for itself. Get the largest hot water tank practical for storing hot water for those stretches we get with no sun. During the winter months adjust the thermostat up so it stores hotter water. During the summer months, back the temp back down (the hotter the water, the quicker your tank ages).

We also kill power to the electric element at the breaker. There is no point to having the electric element click on at 6 am because the tank temp dropped to 119 (or whatever). Your shower will still be plenty hot and there is no reason to use electricity to heat the water if the sun is going to come out in a few hours and do it for you later for free.

Remember the state and federal tax credits are going to pay for most of your solar hot water system and the sun is free. Nobody helps to pay for any other type of hot water heating. The new administration might kill the tax rebates. Get them while you can.

[Lee M-S]

But if you don't have enough income to take the credits, it's going to take a long, long time to break even.

Our electric hot water costs about $40/month (have a timer, only run it 2 hrs/day). The solar water heater quote was $5000. Break even for that is over 10 years.

[terracore]

I don't remember the specifics from 5 years ago but some of the kickback to the consumer was in the form of rebates (that brought the price down) but most of it was in the form of state and federal tax credits. If the income isn't high enough to take full advantage of the credits, it is credited towards the following year's taxes. So if you know you are getting a solar system later in the year, you can adjust your withholding down so your paychecks are bigger to help pay towards the solar system, because after you file your taxes the credits will offset any taxes owed (everybody's situation will vary). And depending on that and current laws (tax laws seem to change every year) the tax savings may take more than one year to come to fruition.

5 years ago the net cost after rebates and credits was $1700. At $40/month the payback on that was 3.5 years. Maybe that's why I'm so happy with it now because we've been on the "free" end of the hot water for awhile.