Electric Heating Systems

For home improvement projects, many home owners opt to install the improvements themselves instead of paying somebody else to do it for them. Some do it because they want to save money. Others do it simply because they enjoy working with their hands. Regardless, if you're looking to build a solar water heater, there are bountiful options available for you to choose from. Some save more money than others, and your options are really opened up because you aren't stuck with whatever a particular company has in stock.

Basic Parts and Installation

The most basic parts required to build a solar water heater are of course the water heating tank, solar panels, and piping to connect everything together. Building a solar water heater isn't a particularly difficult endeavor, but it's more time consuming than anything. In fact, the most difficult aspect of building a solar water heater is proper positioning of the solar panels for the most efficient conversion of solar heat into usable heat. Positioning them incorrectly can result in less than optimal results or very poor results overall.

Also, be prepared to do a bit of sawing and drilling to connect the solar panels outside your home to the solar water heater system inside. As long as you have basic home improvement skills, you'll be just fine undertaking this type of project by yourself. Connect the panels and water heating tank using pipes (filling them with an antifreeze liquid if you live in an area which freezes during the winter). Also, if your solar water heater has a backup power supply, connect that to the power grid to ensure continuous operation in the case of insufficient solar rays on any particular day. Those steps are integral to building a solar water heater, although your particular kit may have slight variations and additional steps.

You can save hundreds of dollars up front by choosing to build a solar water heater yourself instead of paying a construction company to do it for you. You might also ask, “Why go through all this work when I can much more easily install a conventional water heater in less time?” A solar water heater is more environmentally friendly because it uses much less (if any) electricity, so you can easily shave ten percent or more off your energy bill. Building a solar water heater is also the smart choice for the environmentalist due to its efficiency and empowerment from renewable energy.

Most people today still use conventional water heaters, which can cost hundreds of dollars each year to operate and maintain. However, the big focus in the energy industry over the past decade has been renewable energy: clean, plentiful, and cheap. At first, sources of renewable energy was too costly to be an effective solution to the world's energy crisis, but frequent technological advances have made possible the dream of a world independent of oil and coal. To continue this trend, you can replace your conventional water heater with a state of the art solar hot water heater.

Any Climate

One of the most impressive features of solar hot water heaters is that they are quite versatile. They can be used in any climate, although there are different types for warm and cold climates to optimize their efficiency. For example, solar hot water heater models for colder climates use an antifreeze liquid to transfer heat energy to the water heater, while models designed for warmer climates skip the antifreeze because it wouldn't be necessary. This means that no matter where you live, you can purchase and install a solar hot water heater for your home.

Not only can you shave 10% of your energy bill off each month, but you will also be helping the environment out while you're at it. Think about it – you can easily save $25 off your energy bill each month and help the environment. It's a win-win situation that even if you can afford to pass up, you won't want to. So how hard is it to install a solar power water heater? You probably won't want to do it yourself, but you can expect to pay little more than a thousand at most to cover the cost of the heater and installation, so those savings will become even more apparent after about three years. Additionally, if you add the cost onto a mortgage, you'll be able to shave a few more dollars off in tax deductions.

Of course in an idealistic world, the first consideration for installing an environmentally-friendly appliance would be the environment and not money (although that's generally not the case). However, a solar hot water heater is both economical and environmentally helpful as you'll be releasing less carbon dioxide into the air. The sun is going to burn brightly for a few more million years, so it's about time that we start using it to provide cheap and infinite power. Without a doubt, such appliances will become even more efficient in the years to come, but that's hardly a reason to wait. Each month that you put it off, you're simply losing money that you could be saving with a solar hot water heater.

Heated water is absolutely necessary for our way of life, and so many people are content to pay whatever they have to pay for this commodity. However, you may be spending several times what you need to if you use a traditional electric water heater. If you are still using one of those big tanks, then now is a great time to upgrade to a cheaper and more efficient water heating unit. Instead of supplying power off of the electric grid, you can use the power of the sun to heat your water, granting you some big savings each year. A solar water heater uses solar rays not to produce electricity, like with photovoltaic cells in solar panel arrays, but simply to produce heat energy.

Some Maintenance but Much Cheaper

A solar hot water heater is the perfect choice for ecologically aware individuals and families. A conventional water heater may account for as much as ten percent of your electric bill per month, although that number certainly varies a lot depending on the age of your water heater (newer conventional water heaters use less energy than older models). Installing a solar water heater is more profitable under certain conditions than others. For example, purchasing a new house and installing a solar water heater can easily help you save $20 a month, while the cost can be as little as $10 a month on your mortgage. Home owners with mid-1990 models or older will also see significant savings when they install a new solar water heater in their home.

However, there is a small amount of maintenance associated with solar water heaters. Fortunately, it isn't costly or time-consuming, and you'll only need to perform it about every three years (the hardest part is simply remembering to perform it). Different solar water heaters require different forms of maintenance, but it won't be anything too difficult to perform. Another note of caution: solar water heaters generally have a backup source of electricity (generally off of the grid) for when the sun does not supply quite enough power to heat your water. While in theory this isn't necessary, nobody wants to shower in cold water, so you can expect your solar water heater to still use about 10% the electricity that your conventional water heater uses. So far, no 100% electricity-free water heater has been developed, but you can certainly take a huge step towards that goal with a solar water heater.

If you are interested in buying a tankless water heater, besides reading a tankless water heater review there are a few other aspects that you are going to need to take into consideration as well.

What Type?

One of the biggest decisions that you are going to have to make is what type of water heater you are going to need. You can choose to have either an electric or propane tankless water heater. There are both pros and cons to each, but the propane tankless water heater tends to come out on top in most cases.

Benefits

There are quite a few benefits offered by the propane tankless water heater. For one, a propane tankless water heater will be able to recover hot water twice as quickly as their electric counterparts.

That means that in the long term, by opting for a propane water heater you will end up saving yourself a great deal of money. Since propane is extracted from crude oil and processed from natural gas, the price of propane follows the price of these energy commodities, and this refers in particular to the cost of crude oil.

This can be both a good and bad thing but overall the prices for crude oil and the cost of natural gas have been steadily rising which means that you may end up paying more than you expect.

Keep in mind that while propane is produced year-round, the demand for propane is highly seasonal and causes inventories to increase when demand is low which is usually in the summer, and decrease when the demand is higher which is usually in the winter.

Tips

If you decide to go with a propane tankless water heater, here are a few tips that you should keep in mind. For one, when using a water heater you should turn it down from the standard 140 degrees to 130 degrees, and as a result you could end up saving as much as 10% and even more on your water heating bill.

Another helpful tip is to make sure that your attic and basement are properly insulated. This can end up saving you a great deal of money on your water heating bill.

Protect against drafts in your home by caulking and weather-stripping around the windows, doors and other openings in the house.

These tips will all be very helpful and ensure that you pay as little as possible on your water heating bill every month.