3 ms·
Why don't Australians use Solar water heaters? It's the best ROI you can get from solar, Mediterranean countries and the sunny parts of China have absolutely ma
by John_KZ 8y ago
Why don't Australians use Solar water heaters? It's the best ROI you can get from solar, Mediterranean countries and the sunny parts of China have absolutely massive capacities installed. It's direct thermal, so it's not a cool high-tech gadget, but if you're worried about the environment, it's "better" than solar panels when applicable. It also essentially includes on-site thermal storage, so no grid instabilities.
- stephen_g 8y agoLots of them around (especially in my state, Queensland, which has hot summers and mostly fairly warm days in winter), but you need to use a gas or electric booster to have hot water all the time. So in a lot of places it actually turns out to be fairly similar energy use to put in a high-efficiency heat-pump hot water heater. I've just evaluated this because I want to replace the hot water system at my house, and I was initially thinking of solar because my parents have had one for years and it generally works well but the heat pump will be cheaper and I'll eventually get some PV anyway. So all in all it should be a bit cheaper and more efficient per square metre of roof space.
- John_KZ 8y agoSolar panels mix well with heat pumps in hot and dry climates indeed, because of the happy coincidence that peak solar radiation=peak demand for cooling. In that case it's not a bad combo, especially if you have mild winters without temps deep in the freezing (which ruins the COP for heat pumps, assuming you use them for heating too).