5 Reasons Every Home Should Get a Solar Water Heater

Electricity consumption is going higher day by day as the population growth. We need to find ways to decrease electricity usage daily is by using a solar water heater. The solar water heater uses solar power or sunlight to generate heat, which is then used to heat water for your household and several other applications. The heater is generally installed on the terrace of the building or any open area where sufficient sunlight available to heat the water during the day, and stored in a tank for later usage. Some of the advantages of solar water heater are protecting yourself from rising energy costs, heating water using free energy from the sun, saving up to 90% on your water heating bills, accessing hot water 24/7 and decreasing your household’s carbon footprint.

The solar hot water heating system or solar hot water heater is capable of providing up to 90% of your hot water for free using the sunlight without generating greenhouse gas emissions, which depends on the climate that you live. You can even see how much difference such a solar water heating system can make and by avoiding the conventional geysers and immersion rods. Stainless steel for small tanks is used in the water heater, whereas mild steel tanks with anticorrosion coating inside used for large tanks. Furthermore, the solar water heater for home uses for bathing, washing, cleaning and some other purposes.

Let’s discuss with the top 5 reasons why every home should get a solar water heater.

Get hot water even on rainy or cloudy days:

The solar water heater is the best device that helps you to provide hot water even on rainy days. On cloudy days if it is for a day or two, you still get warm water as the water gets heated by solar water heater due to the absorption of diffused radiation available in the atmosphere. Therefore, the solar water heater system is either connected to an electric solar water geyser in the house or an electrical back-up. It provides in the storage tank of the system, which gets switched on when the water is not hot enough. Thus, you get hot water all the time even on rainy or cloudy days.

Protect water quality:

According to the Natural Resources Defense Council, it has proved that several power plants and other toxic heavy metals are being released into the environment each year. Apart from this, carbon and other particles are also responsible for burning fossil fuel. These substances may come in the water of rivers, streams, lakes, and hence, they consider a major threat to the health of human beings, when they consume water from these sources. The solar water heater is one of the best hot water solutions, which we can take to put a stop to mercury contamination of our watersheds.

Protect air quality:

There are several homes even today’s time use electricity to heat the water for their varied purposes, and an ample amount of electric power comes from burning coal. The major drawback of burning coal is to pollute our air and contribute to several health effects as well as negative environmental impact. However, the solar water heater is an appropriate solution to heat the water by using solar energy and helps you become a part of the solution to any of the public health problems – one of the advantages of solar water heater.      

Requires no maintenance:

The foremost advantages of solar water heater are not to require any maintenance when they get installed. You do not face any maintenance costs for a long time as the installation process of a water heater is very simple. However, the collector tubes of water heaters may need annual cleaning to remove accumulated scale and sediment deposits if your area belongs to hard water.

Saves money on water electricity bills: 

A best solar water heater can help you save electricity bills on water consumption! It can provide up to 80 percent of your hot water needs, even in a moderate climate, which is capable of saving major utility bills for several months. For example, a solar heater with a capacity of 100 liters (suitable for 3-4 people of a family) can save up to 1500 units of electricity in a year, and that depends on the amount of hot water used.

Solar water heating system pays for itself in just four to eight years, but it is expected to last for at least 40 years or more. This is how we can save a lot of free energy, and avail a lot of savings from the water bill.

                                                           (Image Source: Glesolar.com)

Salient characteristics of solar water heater

• Helps in turning cold water into hot water with the help of the sun’s rays.
• It helps in attaining around 60 deg. – 80 deg. Celsius temperature and that depends on the solar radiation, weather conditions, and solar collector system efficiency.
• Ideal for homes, hostels, hotels, hospitals, restaurants, dairies, and industries to provide hot water.
• Suitable to install on roof-tops, building a terrace, and open ground where no shading, south orientation of collectors, and over-head tank above solar water heating system are available (SWH system generates hot water on clear sunny days (maximum), partially clouded (moderate) but not in a rainy or heavy overcast day).
• Benefits in providing indulgent and filtered water to the users.
• Solar water heaters (SWHs) of 100-300 liters capacity suit for domestic application and the larger systems use in restaurants, guest houses, hotels, hospitals, and industries.