Factors When Installing a Diy Solar Water Heater

If you’re considering installing a DIY solar water heater on your own, you may be able to get a free energy audit to determine the potential cost savings you could reap. Whether you conduct one yourself or have it done for you, the energy audit must take certain factors into consideration, including:

1. The ease or difficulty you’ll have routing ducts or pipes from the ground floor or basement to the roof;

2. Whether sections of the wall will need to be opened up;

3. If there’s room on your ground floor or in your basement for a storage tank and how you’ll be able to load it in (ie the width of stairwells and doorways) and set it in place;

4. If your roof is accessible enough to place a panel on it and, if not, whether you have an appropriate site on the ground to put it;

5. How well and how sturdily you can fasten your collector’s supports to your roofing materials (for example, clay tile and slate can be more difficult to work with);

6. How well you will like the aesthetics of the system once it’s in place.
To achieve better results with your DIY solar water heater:

7. Aim the solar hot water panel “true south” (as opposed to compass south);

8. Tilt it upward at a right angle to the sun;

9. Avoid shade (particularly between 9 am and 3 pm when the rays from the sun are usually hottest);

10. Always ensure that there is a backup system in place for periods of excessive use and for off-peak solar accessibility hours.

A solar hot water heater installed properly should perform well for the next 15 to 20 years. And a DIY solar water heater requires far less maintenance than its more conventional counterparts.

You might think that it would be extremely difficult to learn how to build a solar hot water heater, but it is not at all. All you need are the right instructions by your side and a little time and investment. And by a little money, that is exactly what is meant. Many people are astonished by the small initial outlay that is required when you are prepared to build your own DIY solar water heater. In these times of increasing environmental pollution and rising power bills, it makes more sense than ever before to become a part of the solution to the global energy crisis and take responsibility for at least a part of your energy needs.

Even for those people who are dedicated to building or buying dedicated home solar power systems for their houses, constructing a solar heating system makes perfect sense as a first step. If you can heat your water with the power of the sun, you will have less need for a large and cumbersome electrical system and can get the size and scale of your photovoltaic panels right from the very start. There is a fantastic ratio of savings for the initial money spent on a solar heating system, and for only a few hundred dollars on materials and a little on professional instructions, you can be enjoying the complete benefits of solar hot water for years to come.