What's the latest on solar hot water heaters?

[newbury]

Background - We HAVE two gas H2O heaters, one in the house, one down in the workshops and we are in NE Mississippi. We HAD two 250 gallon Propane tanks (over 400 gallons total last time I checked), one for each location. They also ran auxiliary heat and barbecue grills.

We were out of town and someone took both tanks. We filed a sheriff's report, called all the gas distributor's and might be waiting a couple of weeks before getting a rental replacement for the one at the house. (I really think it was one of the 4 gas distributors but can't prove it. NOTHING else was taken and the copper pipes were both turned facing down so they wouldn't collect water.)

So we will deal with the loss - but

Question -
I hadn't been using the one at the shop and don't see the need for replacing the propane tank down there, with the chance someone is going to take it again. I only used the hot water rarely down there and am sure I could get by with some form of solar hot water heater. the shop has about 2,400 sq feet of low pitch roof, mostly exposed directly to the sun. As a roofer in a past life I don't mind working on the roof. and I'm pretty aware of roof loads and preventing leaks.

So what's the latest and best bang for the buck on DIY solar H2O heat?

 

[kenmac]

Seems to me solar install would be more work and cost than it would be worth if you rarely use hot water . I would just buy 1 of the small point of use water heaters. Install it at the sink you use the most

 

[cqaigy2]

Seems to me solar install would be more work and cost than it would be worth if you rarely use hot water . I would just buy 1 of the small point of use water heaters. Install it at the sink you use the most

Kinda what i was thinking, unless you want to space heat as well, doesn't seem cost effective or particularly green when considering all the new materials that would be required.

Sorry to hear your tanks were stolen though.

 

[RalphVa]

When solar hot water first came out, with federal rebate and all, you could install them for about the roughly $2,500 cost and equal rebate. Now, the cost is more like $7,500 with the same $2,500 rebate. I couldn't justify it for my house. Justified putting a heat pump on the hot water heater though. HOWEVER, the first heat pump went out just short of a year. 2nd one replaced free on warrantee lasted 2 years. I've since taken the heat pump out of commission.

If you did the solar hot water yourself, you might get it done for way less money and then apply for the federal rebate (if it is still to be had). THEN it might pay out.

Ralph

 

[user.69169]

Being you're in Mississippi there's a whole lot of heat in that roof you can convert to hot water without any fancy solar collecting panels sitting outside for people to sort of borrow and sell.

How you go about the hrvesting is kind of dependant on the roof itself, what it's made of, and is there an attic underneath of the roof.
Hardest way to collect would be from a tin roof with no attic, either way you pretty much got enough heat to keep a swimming pool pretty warm most of the year. There's a lot of people doing it already a lot farther north than you are.

Ain't a whole lot new about it, I was in a museum house last year built in 1850, and there's a 300 gallon lead lined wood tank in the attic that delivered hot water to sinks in every bedroom of the house. Back in the 1950s it was pretty comon in Florida houses to have copper tanks in the attic to heat water.
Long as freezing ain't a concern you can make hot water pretty easy.

 

[wolftree]

I use a Bosch 220V/40 amp electric point of use as the only water heater in my small home. It's purchase price was about $320. It saves me about $20 a month over the 50 gallon tank type heater I replaced. If you only have limitted use for hot water in your shop, then I see this as a viable option for you. Bosch offers several voltage/amperage models to select from.

 

[RalphVa]

I use Tiny Titan heaters where I need hot water and it isn't there or where it takes a long time to get hot water and I use it frequently. Trouble is the price on these keeps going up. Think they're near the price of a regular 50 gallon electric hot water tank now. The Tiny Titan just plugs into a 120v outlet and connects via 1/2" normal pipe threads. I usually connect them using those flex lines. They have very quick recovery, usually giving you hot water in about 10 minutes. Their 2.5 gallons is enough for an outside shower, even in the cooler weather.

Ralph

 

[dmccarty]

In the solar PV class I took earlier this year we were discussing solar hot water heating. The instructor, who is a strong supporter of solar, was waffling on the economics of solar hot water heaters because the price has gotten so high. I think he said that a system was around $7,500 but it might have been higher. NC has a MAXIMUM subsidy of $1,400 for solar water heaters. If I qualified for the maximum amount, and I was using $30 of power a month to heat water, it would take 16.9 years to get my money back on the system. I raised the question in class if would it be better to us PV to heat the water since panels are pretty danged cheap. $7K buys quite a bit of PV power.

An advantage of using PV to heat your water compared to a solar hot water heater is that you would just use whatever electric hot water heater you wanted to buy. If you had a few weeks of clouds like we just had, we would still have hot water since we would still be grid tied, and the hot water heater would not know or care if the power was from PV or the power company.

Later,
Dan

 

[RalphVa]

Yeah, I've given up on trying to reduce consumption much because of not being able to justify solar hot water, heat pumps failing on hot water, etc. About decided to go with PV panels. Got a nice south facing roof on my carriage house and feed line back to the house can take up to about 50 amps. May get an estimate from a contractor over the mountain soon. One up in Winchester told me it wouldn't pay out after he looked up our house location and all on a geo map.

Ralph

 

[Fan of the 1911]

I have seen in camping books a point of use heater that takes a small propane bottle. I think the whole setup cost 60 dollars, I think a little bigger one was around 100. It's mostly marketed for a small cabin with a sink and shower, but the small one might be just the thing for a sink at the shop. Heater, fittings, and a couple bottles of propane may put you in hot water for under100 dollars.
William