Hot water heater is off!

[Doc_Bob]

My solar hot water heater is now running and I have a picture of the thermometer showing 118 degrees (80 gallon tank). I have turned down my gas hot water heater to the lowest heat level. The gas hot water heater is not running at all when I take a shower or do load of laundry.

Sorry the pic is not the best. More to follow.
Bob

 

[Bedlam]

Do tell us about your system..

 

[NewToy]

DocBob, Congrats on being ahead of the curve on saving energy. It's a sure bet energy costs are going to keep going up so we all have to look at ways to save. I installed a geo-thermal system when we built our new house and it's got a coil that takes the heat from the house and heats the hot water. We also have an 80 gallon tank and the geo system keeps the water hot. The water heater rarely runs at all.
John

 

[Boomerang1]

A hot water heater? Isn't it a waste heating hot water? I have a water at my house.

 

[Doc_Bob]

Do tell us about your system..

96 sq ft of panels and 80 gallon RUUD storage tank. The three panels are mounted on the roof. The fellow who did the installation has been doing installs since the 1970s. Did a very nice job.
Bob

 

[NewToy]

A hot water heater? Isn't it a waste heating hot water? I have a water at my house.

I have a water at my house? Elaborate, I'm missing your point.

John

 

[Highbeam]

He was being a funny guy since a hot water heater is silly. Why heat hot water? not to worry, it is much like pouring a cement slab. A good wind will blow your cement away since you really want concrete.

Funny guy.

 

[mikim]

I'd like a system like that but everytime I've priced it out - the cost savings just isn't there. The pay back on the installation cost is so long - that you are then adding in repairs and essentially the darn thing never pays for itself. Maybe I need to try again ..... with the cost of fuel up ... and maybe the cost of solar has come down .....

 

[NewToy]

I had a solar heating array for the swimming pool and it was really effective. You could even run it at night to cool the pool off if so desired. We had that house approx 5 years and had no maintenance issues at all. You had to be vigilant of freezing weather, that was the only time you thought about it.
John

 

[dmccarty]

I'd like a system like that but everytime I've priced it out - the cost savings just isn't there. The pay back on the installation cost is so long - that you are then adding in repairs and essentially the darn thing never pays for itself. Maybe I need to try again ..... with the cost of fuel up ... and maybe the cost of solar has come down .....

Mr. Milk,

I have had the same concerns with a solar water heater. We where going to use solar water heating for our domestic use as well as radiant heating but the numbers just did not make sense. Even with NC tax incentives it did not make sense.

However there are now Federal tax incentives and your state may have them as well. With the incentives it might make money sense to put in the system. If we have the cash at the end of the year I will look at the numbers again and see if it makes money sense to put in the system. And if not this year maybe next. Heating hot water is the biggest chunk out of our power bill after the AC.

Later,
Dan