Imagine cutting your power bills 30%: Invest in Solar Thermal Water Heating

Many of our clients ask how they can include solar power technology and other renewable resources into their home.

Solar thermal water heating is a smart solution for most homeowners. It is one of the oldest uses of the sun's energy and probably makes the most sense financially, logistically, and environmentally.

Your electric water heater may use more energy than anything else in your home or business!

Heating water consumes on average 30% of the total energy bill.

Thermal is different than Solar Electric or Photovoltaic which converts energy from the sun to electric power... a thermal system simply uses ultraviolet energy from the sun to heat water. A little shade has little impact on a thermal system's efficiency.

Reasons to go green with your water heating:

** A cost effective way to reduce carbon emissions and reduce dependence on imported energy.

** The California Energy Commission estimates that installing a thermal system in a typical household using electric water heating can cut 60 to 70 percent off your water heating costs.

** Supplementing with sun-powered water heaters could reduce California's energy consumption by over 2%.

** Investing in this type of system will outperform the stock market even in bullish times… risk free.

** Return on investment (ROI) approximates 15 percent, tax-free, and gets better as utility prices invariably rise. Visit DSIRE.ORG to research your available solar energy incentives

Solar Thermal Water Heating: A Primer

Solar water heaters perform three basic operations to bring hot water to your faucet.

1. Collection: First sunlight, short wave energy, is collected and converted to heat, long wave energy.

Typically, the collectors are either glazed flat plate collectors or evacuated tubes. These collectors allow sunlight to pass through the collector’s glazing. When the sunlight strikes a metal or rubber absorbing material in the panel or tube, it is converted into long wave heat. The glazing prevents the heat from escaping … much like your car on a sunny day with the windows rolled up.

2. Energy Transfer: Circulating fluids, either water, or antifreeze, or a combination of both transfers the collected energy in the form of heat to a water storage tank. The solar loop is separated from water pressure by a storage tank with an internal heat exchanger, i.e., the hot fluids travel through the storage tank in pipes… there is no mixing of the heat source fluid and the potable water in the tank.

3. Energy Storage: As with a traditional system, the solar heated water is stored in an insulated tank until it is demanded from a faucet. If additional heat is needed, it is provided by a backup electrical element in the tank.

Our choice: Evacuated Tube Panels

These collectors have multiple evacuated boron silicate glass tubes, mounted in parallel, which heat up copper absorbers and, ultimately, working heated fluid. The fact that the absorber and heat pipe are dissimilar materials creates no corrosion problems. A sealed heat pipe inside the tube contains a liquid that vaporizes as it is heated. The vapor rises to a heat exchanger positioned outside the collector tube in a manifold through which the heat transfer fluid flows.

Maintenance free, the Earth Tech system features individual vacuum tubes that can be removed or replaced without draining the system, a unique coating that reduces the need for cleaning, a high absorption performance, low reflection ratio and fast start up on cloudy days. With a fifteen year design life, the unique design allows for performance at thirty degrees BELOW zero without freezing.

In lower quality systems, moisture can enter the manifold around the sheet metal casing, is eventually absorbed by the glass fiber insulation and ultimately finds its way down into the tubes. This leads to corrosion at the absorber/heat pipe interface area, also freezing ruptures of the tube itself if the tube fills sufficiently with water.

Each tube and fin of the collector is contained within a glass tube from which all the air has been evacuated. Removing the air by vacuum eliminates convective heat loss from convection allowing them to reach considerably higher temperatures than most flat-plate collectors. Therefore, they can perform well in colder temperature conditions. The tubes are covered with a special surface to minimize radiant heat loss.

Collector panels should be installed as follows:

1. Tilted to an angle between 15 and 40 degrees from horizontal

2. Oriented to face a direction within 45 degrees of South

You need at least 1 gallon of storage for each square foot of collector area. It is desirable that your storage tank be at least 50 gallons of storage for up to 40 square feet of collector area. Generally, the larger the water heater the better, up to 2.5 gallons per square foot of collector area in sunny areas.

Making the decision to include renewable energy resources in your home doesn’t cost… it pays for itself … usually in a few short years

Furthermore, many states and some utilities are offering incentives.

• There is no maximum credit for solar water and space heating heating systems.

• Systems must be placed in service before December 31, 2016.

• Equipment must be certified for performance by the Solar Rating Certification Corporation (SRCC) or a comparable entity endorsed by the government of the state in which the property is installed.

• At least half the energy used to heat the dwelling's water must be from solar in order for the solar water-heating property expenditures to be eligible.

• The tax credit does not apply to solar water-heating property for swimming pools or hot tubs.

• The home served by the system does not have to be the taxpayer’s principal residence.

• A taxpayer may claim a credit of 30% for a solar water heating system that serves a dwelling unit located in the United States and used as a residence by the taxpayer. Expenditures with respect to the equipment are treated as made when the installation is completed.

• If the installation is on a new home, the "placed in service" date is the date of occupancy by the homeowner.

• Expenditures include labor costs for on site preparation, assembly or original system installation, and for piping or wiring to interconnect a system to the home.

• If the federal tax credit exceeds tax liability, the excess amount may be carried forward to the succeeding taxable year. The excess credit can be carried forward until 2016, but it is unclear whether the unused tax credit can be carried forward after then. The maximum allowable credit, equipment requirements and other details vary by technology, as outlined below.

A solar water heater gives you "Tax Prepaid Income."

Can a thermal water heater actually produce enough hot water for my family?

Can I really save money?

This upfront investment is offset by substantial savings month after month after month.

You will have to do the math to determine your payback period. However, the scenarios we have analyzed average break even points at 3 to 4 years and then you get free hot water from then on for the life of the system.

Thermal water heating: an environmental-friendly power source

Increasing power bills, four times the power density of photovoltaic panels, and the great need to limit polluting our environment, means the investment will look like a smarter decision as time goes by.

As a bonus, in 2002, the California’s Association of Realtors found that over 50% of families would be willing to pay more for a home with renewable energy. Additionally, 60% would be more interested in buying a home with solar on it than one without.