How to Choose a Solar Hot Water System

If you've ever started a fire by focusing the sun's rays with a magnifying glass, you've learned first hand the power of the sun to heat. A solar power system won't eliminate your hot water bill but could cut it by as much as 60 percent, saving you thousands of dollars over its lifetime. Technological advances have made solar hot water systems more efficient than ever. They are a great way to conserve energy and protect the environment.

Instructions

1. Understand how it works. A simple solar shower is available for camping through the iconographic outdoor supply house, LL Bean. It consists of a black bag attached to a nozzle that you fill with stream water. Hang it in a tree until the sun warms it, to the point you'd like as displayed by the built in thermometer. When it gets hot enough for you, stand under the nozzle and take a shower. It works quite well.

2. Home solar hot systems basically draw on the same principles. They collect heat from the sun in a flat plat collector or mirrored trough through which tubes are run. The water moves to where it is used in an insulated hot water tank. Systems can be active or passive. Passive systems are simpler and more reliable and depend on the fact that hot water rises and cold water sinks, however your collectors have to be placed below your storage tank. Active systems use a powered pump which takes energy. So that the system can be used at night and in cold weather, the sun power is combined with an auxiliary heating source. In integrated collector storage systems, water passes first through the storage tank and then though a conventional water heater. Since the water has been pre-heated, you used less energy. The amount of auxiliary heat added is controlled by a thermostat. Other systems simply use a back up hot water heater.

3. Choose the right system for your climate. Direct circulation systems pump water through collectors then into the home. They work well in the Sun Belt, where freezing is rare. Indirect circulation systems pump a fluid like anti-freeze through the system and into a heat exchanger which warms the water that you actually use. This is the better choice for climates where frost is likely.

4. Find a reliable installer who will customize a system for your property. A well made system can work up to 25 years with minimal maintenance. You'll find some limited federal help with installation, with new credits in California. Compared to Germany, Greece and even China the United States is lagging far behind on solar hot water incentives.

5. Estimate how much money you'll save. That depend on where you live, the efficiency of your collector, where you place it on your roof, how much sun it gets, how many collectors you use, how big a tank you heat, how big it is, how well insulated your system is and how much hot water you use. If you use auxiliary heating, you'll save less, but a hot shower after a hard work out is guaranteed that way.

6. Feel good that you are doing your part to limit global warming. Every solar hot water system installed stops literally tons of carbon from being released into the atmosphere each year.