Hot water options

[locknut]

I designed and built a system back in the early 80's that worked really well for hot water.Had two 4x8 copper panels on the roof(wood frame/glass covers) for summer and two copper coil pads(steel frames/plaster of Paris encased) attached to the sides of the woodstove for winter.An open loop setup using a small pump and an 80gal preheater tank that fed the 40gal electric water heater.I hooked a meter up to the water heater and it barely turned over the years I operated the system.There was a daily routine in the summer to stop circulation of the panels but I enjoyed messing with it.The panels on the roof would heat the 80gal tank in the summer up to 140deg.I thought that was pretty cool.In the winter,the stove would heat beyond that,so I plumbed in a hydronic heater that would kick in and dump the extra heat off.