So why does anyone buy solar hot water these days?
#NOVAN SOLAR HOT WATER PANELS PLUS#
In this case you can see that, if you are already buying a solar PV system for your home, adding 2kW to that PV system is potentially a much cheaper way to heat your water than buying solar PV plus solar hot water. Almost half the cost (and almost double the payback) of buying a solar hot water system. But if you have already decided to buy solar for your home, then increasing the size of the system by an extra 2kW (to offset the water heater’s energy needs) will only cost about $2,500 extra. Interesting…īut now let’s consider a house that (very sensibly) is already buying a solar PV system to cover its other electricity needs and instead of buying a solar hot water system, is considering simply getting a bigger PV system: Option 3: Increase the size of the solar system you were going to buy anywayĪs mentioned, a good 2kW solar system will cost around $4,000. So the paybacks are exactly the same as the ones I went through for Option 1 above. The going rate for a good 2kW solar system is about $4,000 installed. Combine those PV panels with a timer that only allows water heating during the day and you can make the same savings with a 2kW solar PV system.
#NOVAN SOLAR HOT WATER PANELS INSTALL#
To reduce your water heating energy using only solar PV, you are obviously going to need to install solar PV panels instead of a solar hot water system. How does that compare to a 100% PV based system? Let’s see… Option 2: Use solar PV to generate the electricity to heat the water. So that’s the costs and paybacks associated with a conventional solar hot water heater. So you could well be looking at savings closer to $700 per year with if replacing a gas heater with solar hot water. I expect residential gas prices to double. But… gas prices will to go through the roof over the next couple of years for these reasons. Saving 80% of this is worth $336 per year. c) Replacing a gas water heater.Ī typical Aussie home with a gas water heater uses about 14,000MJ of gas per year to heat their water. And therefore payback stretches out to 10 years (assuming 7% electricity price inflation). If you are lucky enough to have access to off peak electricity for water heating, then this drops to about $250 per year in savings. b) Replacing an electric heater on an off peak tariff Payback will be about 5 years (assuming 7% electricity price inflation).
If you are replacing a conventional electric hot water system, expect savings of about $700 per year if your heater is on the same tariff as the rest of your appliances. a) Replacing an electric heater on a regular tariff The payback for this option depends on what you are replacing with the solar hot water heater. The price of a suitable solar hot water system is about $4,000 installed. Here are the homeowners’ 2 options if they want to join the 21st century and heat their water with the sun instead of dead dinosaurs: Option 1: Use a solar hot water system to heat the water directlyĪ solar hot water system will typically cut your water-heating energy bills by 70-80%. To heat enough hot water to keep a 3-4 person household happy will need about 3,000kWh of electricity per year. To illustrate the shifting economics, let’s take a typical Aussie home with a standard electric water heater. But the bigger nail in the coffin has been the reduction in cost of solar PV systems. Well, the unexpected scrapping of the $1,000 solar hot water rebate in 2012 didn’t help. In fact, over the last 3 years the solar hot water market has shrunk by two thirds.
And most companies that specialise in solar PV will claim that PV has a faster payback compared to solar hot water. Solar PV panels are sold on the promise of cheap electricity, quick installation and low maintenance.
Solar PV panels like these are now a much more common sight than solar hot water panels
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