[Greenbuilding] Water heater timer energy savings?

[Nick Pyner]

On 11/04/2016 9:33 AM, Sacie Lambertson wrote:
>
> A PV set-up that produces sufficient hot water you don't have to 
> purchase the gas/electricity to heat water?
>

  I submit that has to be the way to go these days, and solar thermal is 
just passé, which I understand is reflected in Solarhart's share index.. 
The bigger the PV array you have, the cheaper it gets, and you can use 
electricity for all sorts of things, HWS included, while solar thermal 
just produces hot water and nothing else.  Further, once the solar 
thermal has done its job, it is simply taking up roof space that could 
be more gainfully employed producing electricity. Now I don't know if 
you are in a position to benefit from any feed-in tariff for surplus 
electricity, but I bet you don't have any feed in tariff for hot water, 
and I also bet you won't be charging a battery with it either.

With PV, you can use a standard electric storage heater and plumbing, 
the heater doesn't know or care where the power comes from, and any 
wiring changes should be minimal.  Paying a plumber to go on a roof was 
never that good an idea and,  if you have electric storage HWS already, 
it would surely be madness now.  Another advantage of electric storage 
is that it can probably be painlessly replaced by a heat pump unit, 
which can significantly reduce the PV demand.

There's some food for thought for you

Nick Pyner

Dee Why Beach   NSW
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