My dad installed one on his house in 1985. I think that thing has paid for itself several times over. I know in the summer, the hot water heater never runs and given that it's an extra 120 gal tank in addition the the 40 gal tank, you never run out of hot water.
On 1/8/07, Wayne Putterill <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > This is really quite common in the UK, coincidentally I picked up a > leaflet in a local store yesterday for exactly this product - £1400 > self fit with government grants available. They estimate on 70% > savings on heating bills and a very quick pay back (2-3 years). > > Google "solar water heating kit", and apparently they work even on > overcast days and in winter. > > On 08/01/07, Jim Davis <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > While writing my little tirade on what we can do about Global warming I had > > an idea. It's late and I'm very tired so I may feel differently about it in > > the morning, but right now I think it's pretty neat. > > > > The idea is to use the sun to preheat water before it enters a hot-water > > heater. > > > > We all know that if you let your water run it gets cold - that's the water > > from the service pipe - essentially chilled ground water. The water heater > > takes this and heats it up. > > > > I believe if that water was warming going in it would take less energy to > > heat it. (This is proven out in experiments I've seen. For example boiling > > chilled water takes upwards of 25% longer than boiling hot tap water.) > > > > The idea is to divert the water from your heater intake to a series of pipes > > on the roof or a sunny wall. A network of small pipes (more surface area), > > painted dull black (better heat absorption, less reflection) could heat the > > water before it enters the tank. Basically a reverse radiator. > > > > Ideally such a system would only kick-in when the temperature was high (and > > probably wouldn't be useful at all in climates where the pipes might freeze) > > which would mean some kind of temperature controlled valve (I assume that > > this would be an off-the-shelf part... although where that shelf is I'm not > > sure). > > > > I don't know if the energy savings (if there are indeed any) would outweigh > > the cost of such a thing, but it seems like it would be really cheap to > > build/install and be essentially maintenance free... so even a small energy > > savings would eventually cover the costs. > > > > The answer's probably "yes" but, am I crazy? > > > > Jim Davis > > > > > > > > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Create robust enterprise, web RIAs. Upgrade & integrate Adobe Coldfusion MX7 with Flex 2 http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;56760587;14748456;a?http://www.adobe.com/products/coldfusion/flex2/?sdid=LVNU Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Community/message.cfm/messageid:223959 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.5
