Quote:
Originally Posted by wodin
Well, my shiny new (less than a week old) $7,000 solar hot water system gave me a TEPID shower last night. I went out and checked the temperature in the tank and it was 80 degrees F! Since the air temperature was 82 I was a bit disappointed, especially after a beautiful 87 degree sunny day that should have been heating the tank all day!
Just have to wait until HiPower Solar opens this morning to give them a call and say "HEY! WOT'S UP WI' DAT??!!" (that's pigeon for "What is up with that?".
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You are using solar panels to generate electricity, and using that to heat the water? Is that
all it's intended to do?
Back in the 70's, I worked for a HUD/ERDA sponsored project to promote alternative energy. OPEC was in first flower, gas was over (
gasp!)
$1 a gallon, and there was interest in reducing dependence on foreign supplies.
What we pushed was using solar collectors to use the sun's heat to provide hot water. Photovoltaics were not in the picture. Hot water heating was 20% of the average residential energy bill, and a solar hot water installation had relatively low up front costs and relatively short payback period. (We were tracking photovoltaics, but that was simply too expensive back then for wide deployment.)
The economics for solar cells are different now, due to low cost supplies from Chinese manufacturers, and are a more viable solution for generating part of your electric power, but if my use case was heating hot water, I don't think it's the way I'd go.
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Dennis