Solar Hot Water compared to Photovoltaics PAGE

According to the U.S. Department of Energy, for the year of 2007, photovoltaic systems purchased on the open market were between 12% and 18% efficient, while evacuated tube solar hot water systems were between 60% and 72% efficient. This means that, on average, solar hot water systems are from four to six times as efficient as photovoltaic systems. These numbers are for optimum conditions. Under less than optimum conditions solar hot water systems become many times more efficient than photovoltaic system. Solar hot water systems are much more tolerant of the normal human environment than photovoltaic system are.

In the United States, the average homeowner pays around $800.00 a year to heat their domestic hot water. This is the hot water that homeowner use to take showers, baths, wash their dishes, wash their cloths and do many other things. Hot water is a very handy thing to have around the house, however it costs money. It costs a lot of maney to heat water. It also has other costs, many of them related to our world environment. Solar Hot Water systems can lower both of those costs, the dollar costs and the environmental costs.

These same homeowner can, by using a professionally installed Solar Hot Water system, lower their yearly domestic hot water costs by 55% to 85%, depending on where they live and what type of Solar Hot Water system they install. Realtor say that a well installed Solar Domestic Hot Water system will add more value to a house than the cost of installing the system. With tax credits, exemptions and rebates, you can easily end up pay less than 60% of the normal cost of installing a Solar Hot Water system that once install, on your home, can be worth twice what you paid for it. Installing a Solar Domestic Hot Water system is also a very good way for a homeowner to save money, ($400.00 to $600.00 per year), help America with our trade deficit and help clean up the environment. Some studies say that more CO2 is put into the environment by burning coal to produce electricity for domestic hot water than is produced by the average automobile. One of these studies said that this is also true even when coal is only producing 49% of the electricity used by the electric water heater. (49% is the average amount of electricity produced in the United States by coal fired electric plants.)

Which Solar Hot Water system works best in Clark County, Washington?
Simple Solar Solutions only installs Solar Hot Water system in Clark County, Washington. We, Simple Solar Solutions, have found that for the Southwest Washington climate, evacuated tube solar collector technology works the best. Evacuated tubes are great in low light climates. Germany has been using them for decades. They are also the best collectors for high wind areas. All you need is one Columbus Day like wind storm to show you that this is true.

We also use what is called a hot water preheating method. We take the water coming out of the ground at 51 degrees Fahrenheit in the winter and 54 degrees Fahrenheit in the summer and bring it up to an average of 70 degrees in the winter, 100+ degrees in the spring and fall and as much as 140+ degrees in the summer. Sometimes in the winter our system can get your water well above 120 degrees and at other times during the winter our system will be unable to preheat your water at all. Don't worry, you still have your old water heater to heat the water coming out of the storage tank and then going into your house. Of course, we can hit higher temperatures by installing a larger collector. But with a larger collector we can have over heating situations. This over heating situation is not a problem, it only requires the cost of electricity to run the pump needed to dissipate the heat. The pump and the dissipater are already there, you just need buy more electricity to dissipate the extra heat. It is very important to size the collector system correctly so that the site gets enough heat but not too much.

With a preheat system, we just preheat the water so that your regular hot water heater does not have to work so hard. (And you do not have to pay for the gas or electricity that it would be using.) Your regular water heater will only be working 15-45% as much as it did before. In the winter, low sun light conditions limit all solar collectors, however, evacuated tube collectors perform better than any other type of collector during low sun light conditions. Evacuated tube collectors can produce heat even during cloudy days. I have seen them produce heat even during rainy days. Clark county is known for its cloudy days, that is why we use evacuated tube collectors.

Evacuated tube collectors can produce very hot water in the summer. Our system's controller, with its multiple sensors, will limit the amount of heat moving to the storage tank. Any time the collector produces more heat than the system needs, such as when you are on vacation for more than a couple of days or on very hot summer days, the controller unit will send this excess heat to the system's heat dissipater. This is just one of the many automatic/safety feather our systems have.

Another automatic/safety feather is what is called a mixing valve. If the water in your water heater should get above 120 degrees, the mixing valve will mix cold water with the hot water to keep the temperature of the hot water entering you house at approximately 120 degrees. People can get hurt if the hot water entering the house should ever get above 120 degrees. All Simple Solar Solutions Solar Hot Water systems come with a mixing valve and a heat dissipater.

Simple Solar Solutions Solar Hot Water systems are "Turn on and forget" systems. Once you turn on a Simple Solar Solutions Solar Hot Water system you can forget about it. It will take care of its self. You should have it checked once every two or three years to ensure that it is running as efficiently as possible, but other than that you should pretty much be able to forget you have the system. This can not always be said about Solar Hot Water system from other companies.

What do Solar Hot Water systems cost?
The cost of a Solar Hot Water system is very dependant on where you live, what type of Solar Hot Water system you install and what size system you install. The systems that Simple Solar Solutions installs run from between $6,500.00 to $9,000.00 * before tax credits, exemptions and rebates. By the way, all Solar Hot Water systems sold in the state of Washington are exempt from state sales tax. That is a very substantial savings in and of its self. After the federal tax credit and the Clark Public Utility (for electric customers) and/or our Sales Rebate is subtracted from the above prices, they come down to $3,200.00/$3,700.00 on the low end and $6,000.00/$6,500.00 on the high end (Electric/Gas) respectively.

A correctly installed, nice looking Solar Hot Water system, installed on a nice looking building, can make the value of that property increase by more than the cost of installing the system. From day one you can be ahead of the game. The system will then give you back $400.00, $600.00 or even more in saving each year thereafter.

What about Photovoltaic?
If a homeowner used a Photovoltaic System and an electric water heater to perform the same function as we do with a Solar Hot Water System, the complete Photovoltaic system, tailored for Clark County, Washington, would cost between $42,000.00 and $56,000.00. A small system for a small house (single story, two bedrooms) would cost about $6,500.00* for Solar Hot Water system and about $42,000.00 for a Photovoltaic based system. When you look at the differences in these two prices, I think that most people would choose the Solar Hot Water system.

If you would like to look into buying a Solar Hot Water system for your property, please contact Simple Solar Solutions at (360) 566-8386 or by Email. Click here to go to our special Email pages.

What about Wind and Microhydro power?
To be fair, we should also talk about wind and hydro power. Solar Hot Water systems are much more efficient than photovoltaic systems, but what about Wind Generation or Microhydro systems? We normally do not compare solar hot water systems with wind Generation and Microhydro systems. These systems are very different. However, we can say that Wind Generation or Microhydro systems are very efficient. If you have a stream running through your property, you night want to look at a Microhydro system. They are very efficient and cost effective. Wind generation systems are another good idea. Small systems are generally for do-it-yourself enthuses and big, professionally installed systems can be quite costly. The do-it-yourself wind generation systems do produce electricity at a fairly reasonable price. That is when the wind is blowing.

We can also say that photovoltaic systems are expensive now, but in the future, their price will surely come down. The price of photovoltaic panels are going down each and every year. However, most experts are fairly sure that it will be 15 to 20 years before the price of Photovoltaic systems come down enough to compete with Solar Thermal (Solar Hot Water) systems. At this time, the best Solar Photovoltaic system they have, which is still in a laboratory, is only 43% efficient and this efficiency rating can only realized under ideal laboratory conditions. Photovoltaics still have a long way to go but I'm sure that they will get there someday.

* Prices are subject to change without notice.