We are often asked how efficient Solar Hot water systems are and whether they are worth installing. In our opinion anything to benefit the environment is always a good option but there is one option we find to be a viable, cost effective and more increasingly common.
A standard electric hot water tank with a timer connected at the switchboard, this draws power for heating from solar electric panels on the premises. Most houses these days have solar electricity generating panels on the roof and most of these panels are underutilised sending power back to the grid at a sometimes low “feed in rate”. With a timer on the switchboard we can set the hot water tank to heat during peak sunlight hours as to draw from the solar electric panels rather than the grid and this power can be used to heat up the hot water tank. “Free from the sun”
Case Study, Burleigh Waters – Mike and Jan. Mike and Jan had solar hot water which had been keeping there hot water bill low but found the ongoing maintenance and issues with their solar hot water system not quite what they signed up for when they had it installed 12 years ago. We went to site and provided a free quote on a few options including replacement of the solar hot water system for a more reputable brand.
They opted to go for a “changeover” where we returned their solar system to a standard electric tank removing the panels and associated pipework and installing a new hot water service. We then installed a timer to their switchboard. They were lucky enough to have just had a 6 kilowatt solar electric system installed 6 months prior but were failing to see the benefit of selling power back to their energy retailer for 6 cents a kilowatt. Mike called a few months after install to advise how happy he was with the system and he was already seeing the benefit in this system.
