Free Hot Water Costs Too Much
With the recent sharp increase in the price of propane fuel, we've been thinking a lot about solar hot water. The manufacturers of the solar heat-exchange units claim we could cut our propane use by up to 90%. Though we have no way of knowing for sure, we estimate that more than half (and perhaps as much as 3/4) of our current propane use goes for heating water, so that sounded pretty good to us. We called a local solar hot water installer and asked for an estimate. The result: $11,570. Ouch! And that's for a small system appropriate to a two-person household. (At the current price of propane, optimistically the system would take at least 40 years to pay for itself.
It seems like there ought to be a better way. We've got great sun exposure, even in the winter. But at that price, we can't afford to use it.
In the coming weeks, I'll be looking for other options— including installing a system myself. Any suggestions will be welcome.
(Graphic from TrendsetterIndustries.com, the company that makes the system quoted.)
check out the magazine "Mother Earth News". They are always having DIY articles on stuff like this. There is also a web site (the name escapes me at the moment) that allows you to type in your housing data to give you a cost estimate. Maybe gosolar.com. I agree with you though, the $11,000 seems really steep. I did an estimate on the webpage above and got one back for about $5,000 if memory serves correctly.
I guess though the price comes down to system complexity (like most else). Maybe you were quoted a Cadillac price whereas I was given the Fiesta price :)
Reply to this
Thanks. We get Mother Earth News and love it. I plan to look at a DIY system, even though as an accountant I'm better at figuring costs than at tasks such as plumbing. Our system would necessarily be more complex than some because of the extreme cold weather we get in winter, which requires a heat exchanger/reservoir type system. (Most in northern states would need this.)
Reply to this
When Fran Ferry had the kennel in Grafton, she also had a swimming pool. She used black plastic tubing coiled over the kennel roof to provide lots of warm water for the pool and for cleaning. I know by experience that our garden hose has a lot of very hot water when we first turn on the faucet, just by sitting in the hose in the sun. Winter in NH is a different story, of course. We cannot leave the hoses hooked up.
Mom
Reply to this