Beckett SolarHot - Manual (Page 3)

 © SOLARHOT 2006-2009
Guide to SelectinG and inStallinG a
S
olar
H
ot
W
ater
S
yStem
Introduction
There has been a lot of press lately about the growth of renewable energes and the need for
energy ndependence. There have been artcles wrtten about Solar Electrc (PV), wnd, ethanol, bo-
desel, and hydroelectrc. At heart a pragmatst, I have researched each of these technologes n turn
and been disappointed to find that for whatever reason these technologies have little to offer me at the
current tme. I thought solar electrc offered a lot of promse untl I researched the cost vs. the savngs.
It takes 20+ years (wth government ncentves) to pay back the cost of the nvestment! Whle the
economcs of wnd are very attractve, the fact s that I lve n a state (North Carolna) where wnd s only
viable (according to the government energy office) along a tiny sliver of the coast and ridgelines of the
mountans. Unfortunately, I don’t lve n the 1% of the state that has adequate wnd speed to generate
electrcty. It was at ths pont n my nvestgaton that my job took me south.
Brazl s a developng economy. Because of ths, ther government mantans a very hgh mport
tarff on tems that are/can be manufactured n the country. They do ths to protect the jobs of the
workers n the country. The polcy has the added effect of ncreasng the cost for many goods snce
foregn competton s vrtually elmnated as a result of the hgh tarffs. In 2004, Brazlan per capta
income was one-fifth of the United States. Because of lack of development in the financial markets,
t s uncommon for people n Brazl to take out a mortgage to buy a house. Rather, they buld ther
home and pay for it out of their earnings (remember they are making one-fifth of what we make in the
U.S.). Fnally, as I vsted varous frends and co-workers who were buldng houses n Brazl, I notced
that they were all nstallng solar hot water systems n a country where the wage rate s relatvely low,
financing is virtually non-existent, and many goods are priced higher than in the U.S. How can this be
happenng? When I asked a frend, he repled, “Because t makes economc sense.” Clearly, I had to
get more nformaton.
When I returned home, I researched solar hot water systems and found that he was correct.
Where solar electrc systems take 20+ years to get a payback, solar thermal systems pay back n 5-7
years. If you consder the added value to the home ($4000 - $5000 accordng to a recent study by the
Amercan Insttute of Archtects, Washington Post-August 6, 2006) the payback can be nstantaneous.
If you roll in the federal (and many state) tax credits available, you end up with an investment that