Electric Heating Systems

Solar water heaters are the most scientific as well as developed way to heat water. The electric water heaters are outdated and the solar water heaters will soon be taking their places, no doubt. And why not? A solar water heater helps us not only in reducing our electricity bill, but at the same time, it helps us in giving our part to save our environment and surrounding.

Types of solar water heater

Solar water heaters are of generally two main types, classified on the basis of their making status. They are

1. Ready solar water heaters : these are those kinds of solar water heater that are already manufactured and just need to be installed.
2. Build solar water heater :these are those kinds of solar water heaters that are made at home or anywhere by any individual following a particular guide or manual.

Build solar water heater

By making your solar water heater, you are able to reduce the electricity bills. And at the same time, the investment also decreases compared to the readymade solar water heaters. It is very easy to build solar water heater. All it needs and requires are few things from the hardware store, few project schematics and that’s all. Only by assembling these things, you can make your own solar heater. The time required depends on how big solar water heater are you making. Bigger the heater, more it is going to take time.

Build solar water heater for home

There are few options provided while making a solar water heater. Either it is made for use at home or at some other place.

If it is made for home, then all you need to do is to set up a solar panel at your house. This is to be set where it can receive maximum sunlight. And then this solar panel is connected to the existing heating system. Also a high capacity battery can be installed for the back up purposes. It can help you when the sun is not out. If you don’t have a heating system, then you should go for a ‘real time solar water heater’. It heats the water without storing it.

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For more comprehensive ideas, check out simpleheaters guide on building solar water heaters

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Solar energy promises to usher in a new era of energy, energy that is free for everyone in the world to use, is completely clean, and is effectively infinite in amount. Within the next century, humanity may end energy conflicts and air pollution while creating millions of new jobs to help empower all of society. While small in the scope of things, a solar water heater system is one tiny step to achieve that goal. Originally more of a novelty than anything else, solar energy is becoming commonplace, although it may still be slightly too expensive for some home owners to afford.

Deciding What's Right for You

Until solar water heater systems are within one or two hundred dollars of conventional water heaters, they likely won't see widespread appeal. Right now, you would be hard pressed to find solar water heater systems within four hundred dollars or so of conventional water heaters, although you won't find any outlandishly priced heaters either that cost thousands upon thousands of dollars. Still, the upfront cost is too much for many folks to stomach, even though they would be saving hundreds of dollars each year, and a solar water heater system would pay itself off in energy savings within three to four years. That's because these heaters use little to no electricity, depending on the model and your location geographically. You can expect to easily shave ten percent off your energy bill each month, but many folks don't have the disposable income to invest several hundred more dollars up front for one of these systems. It's a shame too because the savings over the years would add up to thousands of dollars.

However, a myriad of solar water heating devices are available beyond drinking water. A pool solar water heater uses the sun's energy to warm up your pool to a comfortable eighty plus degrees, which makes it much more enjoyable at all times of the day. How many times have you jumped into the pool after dinnertime only to find yourself freezing? A pool heater solves this problem by keeping your pool a constant temperature at absolutely no cost to your energy bill.

Everyone can benefit from a solar water heater system, unlike pool heaters which will only benefit pool owners. If you can afford the extra several hundred dollars right now, go for it! You will love the savings over time (several hundred dollars each year). You'll save money over a conventional heater within two to three years, and it will pay itself off within five to six. For new and current home owners alike, it's never too early to make the switch to a solar water heater system.

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.

The source of nearly all of our energy is the sun. While we might use wind, oil, and rivers to help empower our world, all of those sources of energy are also made possible through the sun. Because it won't stop burning anytime soon, we can effectively consider it an infinite source of energy, and better yet, it's completely free for absolutely anyone to use. To get the biggest savings possible on your next energy bill, a passive solar water heater will use the sun's rays, saving you hundreds of dollars a year.

Just One Step to Protect the Environment

A passive solar water heater is certainly smart for the environmentalist, but it also makes sense for any home owner. It's estimated that ten percent of all home energy usage goes into water heating. If every conventional water heater was replaced with a passive solar water heater, the energy savings would be tremendous, saving at least 3-4% off the world's energy needs each year. While 3-4% doesn't sound too large, keep in mind that this could be just one step towards making the world energy independent. With other problems like water shortages shaping up to be the defining problems of the twenty-first century, we really don't have any time to spare.

Of course, there are other energy saving water heaters. Other popular versions include water heaters that heat water as it passes through instead of storing it in a large tank. After all, it doesn't make sense to heat water if you're not going to use it for hours and hours. However, a passive solar water heater ensures that you'll always have a large supply of hot water at your disposal, so it allows for some heavy usage that you'd otherwise be incapable of. The difference between active and passive solar water heaters is simple: active heaters use pumps to force hot air or liquid around, using electricity in the process, while passive heaters skip the pump and let the heated material move itself around, allowing for even larger energy savings in the process.

Fortunately if you want a solar water heater, you won't need to have somebody else install it for you. If you opt to build a solar water heater, you can save hundreds more dollars. Many do-it-yourself kits are available for purchase, and you can even build them from scratch (by buying the components separately). Building your very own passive solar water heater affords you even more versatility, so if you can do it yourself, that's the path you should definitely take.

The sun produces untold trillions of watts of power, and even though we receive just a tiny fraction of that power, it is many times capable of empowering our entire world. For the past few decades, solar power has been gaining prominence as the technology matures and it becomes even more efficient and cheap to produce equipment for. Most people are familiar with solar panels that convert solar rays into usable electricity. However, solar power can also be harvested for its heat energy, as in the case of solar power water heaters, which don't use any source of power but the sun to heat water.

Millions of Degrees

The sun burns so brightly and hotly that it is many millions of degrees in temperature. When it reaches Earth it only warms us to 0 to 100 degrees Fahrenheit. That might not seem too impressive, but there is still a great deal of heat in all of the solar rays that bombard us. The only problem is finding a way to harvest those solar rays. Most of them aren't absorbed, and if there were a way to effectively absorb many of them, a great deal of concentrated heat could be produced for our use. Solar power water heaters use solar panels to trap that heat and concentrate it (effectively making it hotter), so even though the atmosphere might not get hotter than 100 degrees, or even if it is below freezing, solar power water heaters can easily heat water up to 200 degrees (although they may require a backup source of energy from time to time).

Many consumers might be rightfully wary of purchasing any new technology, and solar power water heaters and no exception. However, as they mature, you can rest assured that the appliances will become even more reliable and efficient, so only make the purchase when you feel comfortable and assured. Even bigger savings can be achieved through the use of what are known as passive solar water heaters. Active models use pumps and other mechanical devices to move the warm liquid or air along, but passive versions achieve the same results without the use of those devices, so they save even more energy and consequently money.

If you're ready to start weaning yourself off of the power grid, then now is the time to upgrade to solar power water heaters. You'll end up saving hundreds of dollars a year, and you'll never have to worry about the energy being shut off because the sun won't stop burning for billions of years. On top of all of those savings, you'll also be able to sleep easier at night knowing you are doing what you can to help deal with the climate crisis and save the environment.

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.

If you are out shopping for a portable hot water heater, there are quite a few options available to you. There are also a few things that you should be aware of before you head out to purchase a portable hot water heater, whether that is a solar water heater or other type in particular that you are interested in.

What It Is

A water heater is, quite obviously, a device that is used for storing and heating water. The heat is generated by gas, electric or steam, and they are necessary for heating the water of homes and businesses. There are various different types of hot water heaters out there that you can choose from, and the lineup is constantly being added on to, with new and more improved models being released on the market all the time.

What You Should Know

One of the most important steps that you are going to need to take when shopping for a portable hot water heater is determining capacity. Although some consumers base their purchase on the size of the storage tank, the peak hour demand capacity is actually the more important figure here. Therefore, before you go out shopping, estimate your household’s peak hour demand and then look for a unit with an FHR in that range.

Also when shopping for a portable hot water heater you are going to consider rating efficiency. Once you have decided what type of water heater is going to best suit your needs, then you can better determine which water heater in that category is the most fuel efficient.

The higher the EF, the more efficient the water heater. Electric resistance water heaters have an EF between 0.7 and 0.95.

Comparing costs is another crucial step in choosing a portable hot water heater. When choosing among different models, remember that it is wise for you to take the time to analyze the life cycle cost, the total costs and benefits associated with a purchase during its estimated lifetime.

There are so many terrific options available to you here and so make sure that you take your time here and ensure that you choose just the right model for your needs and budget.

If you do ever need help with this process, know that there are some fantastic professionals out there who will be more than willing and able to offer you assistance here.