A Solar Water Heater?

They are building a house next door to mine and I have going inside as they made progress to check out all of the things they are putting in. One of the things that I noticed and had to ask about was a solar water heater. I didn’t even know there was such a thing and ended up having to do some research on what it was and how it worked. I assume since we live in the south the builder figured this would be a good energy alternative as well as a viable one. I haven’t had the chance to actually ask him since he never seems to be around when I go over there. 

I have been debating whether to do regular or tankless or tank water heaters for a while when I saw the solar one. So just what the heck is a solar water heater? Well, it is pretty much like it sounds. They capture thermal energy from the sun to heater the water in your house. Sounds simple right? I thought maybe the system need some sort of software to work or whatever but it doesn’t. In fact, solar heating has been around since the seventies. That is crazy isn’t it? I just can’t wrap my head around that. 

The system uses a solar collector to gather thermal energy from the sun and then turns it to heat. At least that is what I understand from what I have read. I have thought about switching to solar power off and on but I never knew I could heat my water. The problem is I have so many questions. The top one being with it still work if the power goes out? I know that sounds like a simple sort of question but I want to know. When the power goes out here the water still works and having a hot shower during that time would be awesome.

Trust me the power was out here once due to an ice storm for a week straight. It was freezing and there wasn’t anywhere to go since the hotels in town were out as well. You wouldn’t believe that this part of Georgia could get tat cold but it did. So you can see why I would want to know the answer to that question.

Another issue I wonder about is cost. Is it really going to save me money or am I going to shell out a bunch to install it and not see a return for years? I have heard that installing solar power is rather expensive although I know there are some tax breaks for having it. Am I still going to have to pay for regular electricity as well? I mean solar doesn’t work all of the time right?

The biggest question though is will solar heating work? There are more than a few people in our my home and we all bathe. So that means we use a good bit of water so will we actually save money by switching or does it solely depend on the amount of water that we use? I do understand that if we used natural gas to heat our water and switch we would save more than using electricity. That is because natural cost costs less than electricity anyway.