Solar DHW on my own house

Before I had the idea to get into the solar business, I always wanted to put some sort of renewable energy system on my house. First I thought of a wind generator as we have a lot of wind around my house. The problem is that there are also a lot of tall trees. For a wind generator to work properly, it needs to be at least 30 feet above any objects within 300 feet. I would need a 120 foot tower to meet this requirement, which is very expensive and not likely to win any friends around the neighborhood.

Then I looked into photovoltiacs, which are still an option. Before installing a photovoltiac system however, I wanted to reduce our electric use as much as possible. We heat our water with electric. What better way to reduce electricity use than a solar thermal system. I did quite a bit of research and found the following:

Solar thermal systems are more efficient than photovoltiacs. For the same area about three times the energy can be extracted.
Solar thermal is less expensive than photovoltiacs.
Solar thermal has a shorter payback period, depending on the federal and state incentives, a simple payback period of between 2 to 4 years, versus about 10 years for photovoltiacs.
Solar thermal works well in this climate, provided adequate freeze protection is built into the system.
Solar thermal is slightly harder to install.

Last summer I set out to install my solar thermal system, I purchased the parts individually on line and installed them myself. It was a fun project and works very well, so I am happy with it. It is the basic system outlined on the “How Solar Works” page.

Solar domestic hot water system

Next year I will likely to 2 KW of photovoltiacs on tracking mounts. It is important that I believe in the technology that I am trying to sell and install on other people’s houses. There is no better way to demonstrate that than to install and use it myself.

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