Energy Advice

Welcome to our energy advice column. Here we summarize publicly available information on the many ways you can save money on your energy bills as well as general topics on renewable energy. We try to keep our advice short and to the point.

IS SOLAR HOT WATER FOR YOU?

Yes!  I say it again, yes. Solar hot water simply provides the fastest return on your investment. And there's nothing more appealing than having the sun provide us with free hot water long after the system has paid for itself—usually in a period of just a few years.

Of course, if the price of energy goes up, the pay back is even quicker.

Unless you live in a very cloudy region, a hot water solar system is incredibly efficient in converting the sun into heat. It's more efficient than solar-generated electricity from photovoltaic panels, otherwise known as PV modules.

Regardless of where you live, you can easily expect to save from 50 to 80 percent in your hot water-related heating bills. For example, if you live in New York, you can expect to capture more than 60 percent of the sun during the year. In San Francisco, it's 80 percent. And in Chicago, it's above 60 percent. This means that a family of four, living where there's a minimum solar penetration of 50 percent, can expect a return between 10 and 14 percent on their solar hot water investment. In other words, buying a solar hot water system is like putting money in the bank and getting a return whose interest is greater than 10 percent per year. And that's at today's energy prices!

If you're getting a mortgage for a new house, don't hesitate to build the cost of a solar hot water system into your monthly mortgage payments. From the first month that you start using your solar hot water system, the savings will be paying for the system.