Solar power water heater systems can help you save money on your monthly power bills (water heating is one of the more expensive uses of electricity or gas) so why not install such a system ? This article will discuss whether it makes financial sense to install a solar water heating system in the home. A Solar power water heater system is normally added onto the current hot water system. It is basically a method of collecting the sun's thermal energy. This is called a solar collector. It can be a flat plate collector such as a standard water tank or an evacuated tube collector. Both systems has features that increase the efficiency of absorbing heat and insulation to stop it being lost to the surrounding environment. Water is moved past the flat plate collector or through the tubing. The will heat the water that is then pumped into the home plumbing, water tank or boiler. The household saves money on the reduced cost that is needed to heat water using the normal heating system, as the solar water system has already partly heated (or in some cases it is hot enough) the water. But is this saving enough to go to the trouble of installing a solar system and the costs that this will entail ? To start with, you should look into your existing hot water system. Saving money is not only about looking at free sources of energy but making your use of energy as efficient as possible. You should consider installing the latest energy saving boiler and get proper lagging to insulate the tank. The boiler should be the right size for your hot water needs. An over sized boiler will cost more over time. Once you have worked this out, there a 5 things to think about when it comes to the viability of a solar power water heater. These are : What amount of heated water is used in the house annually - This may be hard to get exactly right. You will probably have to average out the total over a few months, taking into account the fluctuations in usage during the summer and winter months When the hot water is used - You will get more benefit form the heated water at the peak of the sun's thermal energy (midday) than at night, however you are more likely to use it at night. How compatible the current heating system is with a solar powered heating system - How easy will it be to hook the two systems up. What will a solar power water heater system cost - this really depends on the size of the system which is dependent on your usage of hot water. However, prices of solar water systems should drop in future as more emphasis is placed on renewable or free energy sources. The cost of the energy that your current hot water system uses - this will undoubtedly rise in the future as most of these fuels are finite. The price to find, extract and transport the raw materials will increase and this will be past onto the consumer. So broadly speaking, solar systems will go down and traditional energy systems will go up. This bodes well for the future but what about now. When looking at solar power water heaters you will be given indications of probably energy savings based on time of the day and quality of sunlight. You can factor these figures into your annual usage and come up with an annual saving.
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