Why Solar?
Solar water heating systems utilise very straight-forward technology that is tried, tested and widely used in many parts of the world and they make great economic and environmental sense. With continually rising energy costs, solar water heating will reduce your consumption and energy bills today and even more in the future.
Knowing that the sun will rise every morning and set in the evening, we think it's just plain smart to take advantage of that clean & reliable energy.
Did you know that...
Residential Hot Water Facts
- 25% of the average Canadian household energy bill goes to heating domestic hot water.
- A solar water heating system can save between 50-70% of those costs.
- With solar pre-heated water, you can reduce your home's greenhouse gas emissions by 1-3 tonnes.
Investing in a solar hot system will help protect you against future increases in energy prices!
It's true...if you invest in a solar hot water system today, you'll be protecting yourself from future increases in the cost of natural gas or electricity! Because solar hot water heating is all about 'demand-side management', i.e. reducing the amount of energy used to heat water by solar preheating it, that means you'll be consuming less natural gas or electricity to heat your water.
When the price of natural gas or electricity goes up, you'll wind up saving more money than you are today, and your system's return on investment will look even better.
Some countries and states have already moved towards the mandatory installation of solar water heating systems for new construction...let's go Canada!
In countries like Israel, Greece, Egypt, and Spain in 2004, the installation of solar thermal systems on new construction and retrofits is part of daily life. There are huge movements across all of Europe in this direction and mandatory solar thermal is a standard policy of most Green Party platforms internationally.
Would you build a house in Canada without any insulation? Even if you wanted to, the building code has minimum requirements for insulation because doing otherwise doesn't make any sense. It's the same with solar water heating...if we're going to move towards reducing our consumption why not let the sun generate 50% of Canada's hot water!
Other FAQs
How much is a solar water heating system going to cost for a "typical" residential home?
A solar water heating system for a "typical" residential domestic hot water load would cost somewhere in the range of $4000-$8000 installed. After taking into account all the usage and storage factors we can start to design a system that may have one, two or many more collectors. The price will vary greatly depending on your budget and individual requirements.
How does solar hot water heating work?
In very simple terms, solar thermal systems pre-heat the water that goes into our conventional water heating system, usually a gas-fired or electric water tank. By putting pre-heated water into our conventional water heating system, we save energy and money by not having to heat the water up as much as we normally would have to, i.e. the sun gives us a free boost. Read more here about the actual functioning of a solar water heating system.