I’ve been watching the sun a lot the past couple of months. Wondering, will we ever see the pay-off on our investment in a solar hot water system? (Click to see ours.) Frankly, it’s been surprisingly good weather after all of the snow we received earlier this winter, so here’s what I’ve learned from the experience:

1. Snow slides off of the panels until it piles up at their base on the roof’s surface. That causes it to back up onto the panels until I clear the snow pile, and I may as well clear the panels while I’m at it. I broke the plastic pool brush that I was using to clean off snow initially, so I took an old aluminum shovel and turned it’s bracket around to make a roof rake. Now, I can keep everything clear again. The solar electric panel that runs the system’s pump is small and easy to keep clear, but I think that clearing the four 4′ x 8 ‘ solar hot water panels is worth the time since the snow just piles up at the base.

2. Don’t count on a quick return of the Focus on Energy rebate. We had to have a follow up inspection from one of their people, and I’m not sure where we are in the process at this point. I’m hoping that the contractor will come address the concerns of the inspector soon since $3K of our money is at stake. The contractor’s only incentive is positive word of mouth since they are paid as soon as the job is complete. Guess who’s volunteering to be part of the solar home tour? We’re the ones who want the rebate check, not them.

3. The system needs a good chunk of space for a family of 6. The 100 gallon tank, plumbing for the heat exchanger, and the associated valves were laid out fairly compactly, but they did require that our washer/dryer be stacked to make space. Think about the same footprint as a full sized clothes washer. The good news is, it’s not in a finished space, so we tend to keep the door to our utility/laundry room closed most of the time anyway.

4. A simple system is what we were promised, and with the decals showing the direction of flow through the pipes, it is fairly easy to tell what is happening. Propylene glycol coming in off of the roof entered our house at 125 degrees F when it was -20 degrees F, and it drops anywhere from 10 to 20 degrees as it passes through the heat exchanger. That’s after about a 40′ run through insulated pipes outside! Water coming out of the top of the tank is often hot enough to avoid burning any natural gas to heat water on sunny days. I’ll bet we don’t burn any natural gas during the summer.

5. Water within the solar heated water storage tank varies in temperature from 55 degrees F in the bottom to 130 degrees F in the top, and we draw the heated water from the top into our regular 40 gallon water heater. I had no idea that such a small storage tank could contain water with such a wide temperature range.

6. Even a simple “2-3 day” installation may have it’s share of complications. First, there was the application process for the rebate program once we signed the contract on the 1st of November. I thought we’ld have the project done by the end of the year at that point. The application was approved on December 28th. Then, the installation was relocated to the garage roof because the space directly over the living space initially proposed had too many elements that would interfere, including a sky light and roof top ventilation. That in itself cost a couple of extra days due to the time laying copper and insulating the pipes. Also, because it was installed during an unusually snowy month of January, there was a fair amount of snow removed from the roof to create a work surface where the panels would be installed. Throw in the California based suppliers not shipping items since they were in the midst of taking inventory, and it stretched the job out quite a bit. Most of that impacts the contractor more than us. But, we are still waiting to see the rebate check in late March after the job was completed and paid for at the end of January. Still, I’m of the opinion that it will be worthwhile once we receive the rebate and take the tax credit during the following tax year.

7. I’m not sure what kind of impact this is having on our carbon footprint, but it has to help. We have two teenagers and two younger boys (who still prefer to avoid bathing at this stage). Once things warm up outside, we use a lot of towels due to a swimming pool, so that increases the hot water use. No, we won’t hook up the system to heat our pool. We’ll just keep using the solar cover instead. I’m hoping to offset any increase in our use of water (longer showers!) by installing rain barrels at all of the downspouts around our house. That will mean less water out of the hose to water the garden.

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