Installing A Solar Power Water Heater - Will You Save Money
Solar power water heater systems can help to lower your energy usage and the associated costs (heating water often accounts for a large proportion of the average households energy bills) so should you install a system ? This article will set out the criteria for making this decision easier and asks if you can justify installing a solar water heating system on purely financial grounds.
Solar power water heater systems are normally used with an existing hot water system. The principle behind such a system is that they absorb the sun's heat energy. They are constructed to maximize this ability to absorb heat and insulated so that the heat is not lost to the environment. This is known as a solar collector and can be a specially design water tank or a length of piping that absorbs the sun's energy.
Water is circulated through the tank or tubing based on it's temperature. As it passes through the tank or tubing it is heated up and is then passed to the regular boiler or plumbing system in the home.
So traditional utility supplied energy usage is reduced when it comes to heating water as the water has been already heated by the solar system. This will save on utility bills but will it save enough money to justify the time and expense required to install a solar water system in the first place ?
To start with, you should look into your existing hot water system. Saving money is not only about looking at free sources of energy but making your use of energy as efficient as possible. You should consider installing the latest energy saving boiler and get proper lagging to insulate the tank. The boiler should be the right size for your hot water needs. An over sized boiler will cost more over time.
After this, it comes down to five considerations, that you may have already established when you made the existing hot water system as efficient as possible. These are :
How much hot water is used by your family annually - You would probably have to average this out from a month or a few months rather than recording the whole year. However, you expect to use more hot water during the winter so factor this into your calculations.
When will the heated water be used - The solar water system will work better when the sun is hottest, generally midday.
Is the current heating system conducive with the solar system.
What will a solar power water heater system cost - this really depends on the size of the system which is dependent on your usage of hot water. However, prices of solar water systems should drop in future as more emphasis is placed on renewable or free energy sources.
The cost of the energy that your current hot water system uses - this will undoubtedly rise in the future as most of these fuels are finite. The price to find, extract and transport the raw materials will increase and this will be past onto the consumer.
So broadly speaking, solar systems will go down and traditional energy systems will go up. This bodes well for the future but what about now. When looking at solar power water heaters you will be given indications of probably energy savings based on time of the day and quality of sunlight. You can factor these figures into your annual usage and come up with an annual saving.
Article Source: http://www.search-raven.com
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Get more information on solar hot water systems and information on solar powered landscape lighting at solarpowerappliances.com.
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