This is really quite common in the UK, coincidentally I picked up a leaflet in a local store yesterday for exactly this product - £1400 self fit with government grants available. They estimate on 70% savings on heating bills and a very quick pay back (2-3 years).
Google "solar water heating kit", and apparently they work even on overcast days and in winter. On 08/01/07, Jim Davis <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > While writing my little tirade on what we can do about Global warming I had > an idea. It's late and I'm very tired so I may feel differently about it in > the morning, but right now I think it's pretty neat. > > The idea is to use the sun to preheat water before it enters a hot-water > heater. > > We all know that if you let your water run it gets cold - that's the water > from the service pipe - essentially chilled ground water. The water heater > takes this and heats it up. > > I believe if that water was warming going in it would take less energy to > heat it. (This is proven out in experiments I've seen. For example boiling > chilled water takes upwards of 25% longer than boiling hot tap water.) > > The idea is to divert the water from your heater intake to a series of pipes > on the roof or a sunny wall. A network of small pipes (more surface area), > painted dull black (better heat absorption, less reflection) could heat the > water before it enters the tank. Basically a reverse radiator. > > Ideally such a system would only kick-in when the temperature was high (and > probably wouldn't be useful at all in climates where the pipes might freeze) > which would mean some kind of temperature controlled valve (I assume that > this would be an off-the-shelf part... although where that shelf is I'm not > sure). > > I don't know if the energy savings (if there are indeed any) would outweigh > the cost of such a thing, but it seems like it would be really cheap to > build/install and be essentially maintenance free... so even a small energy > savings would eventually cover the costs. > > The answer's probably "yes" but, am I crazy? > > Jim Davis > > > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Create robust enterprise, web RIAs. Upgrade & integrate Adobe Coldfusion MX7 with Flex 2 http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;56760587;14748456;a?http://www.adobe.com/products/coldfusion/flex2/?sdid=LVNU Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Community/message.cfm/messageid:223952 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.5
