Posts Tagged ‘Household Energy’

Homemade Solar Hot Water Heaters – Yes You Can DIY and Save $

Heating water is one of the largest contributors to our electricity and gas bills. You might have considered a solar electric system, or solar for heating water- but have you thought about homemade solar hot water heaters to help your household reduce energy consumption and help the environment?

Why Solar Hot Water over other Options?

Installing a DIY solar hot water system is probably the cheapest (and simplest) way to make a large indent into your energy bills. Up to 1/3 of household energy usage goes toward heating water.

Would you like to cut your energy bills by a third by investing just a weekend of your time and less than $100?

Professionally installed solar electric (PV systems) are readily available but have a very long payback period.

An average of 15- 20 years, even with rebates that some governments provide. Solar electric panels are known for their low efficiencies- it is a developing technology that still has lots of room for improvement.

The efficiency of a solar water system is up to 5 times greater than in solar electric systems, and it is much cheaper to install, especially if you make your own solar hot water heater. Your bills will not be completely removed, but the solar hot water system preheats all your household water, giving you substantial energy savings, and it can even extend the life of your current hot water system by reducing its load.

Conventional energy is becoming more and more expensive as resources gradually diminish in supply. Governments are moving towards wind, solar and other less polluting energy sources, but it takes time and substantial investments of money and technology.

You can get ahead of the ever-increasing cost of energy by producing your own! Solar power, which has always been viewed as costing thousands of dollars, even for a basic system, is now achievable for a much smaller investment. Putting your own homemade solar hot water heater together will cost less than $100 and can be done in a weekend.

Find the Solar Heater Guide- complete with plans and designs to DIY, along with lots of other Green Living resources at Green House Healing.