Solar-h2o

Developing a Solar Hot Water System at Miller Farm

Our current hot water system consists of an electric hot water heater that was installed in 1998. After working on an energy audit of Miller Farm (our house) it has become clear that despite our relativily new water heater we still use a huge amount of energy to heat our water. Installing a solar hot water heating system has therefore become one of our goals, both because it does not have the inherent complexties of a solar electric system, and because hot water heating is where we use the most electricity. Also using solar power to heat water makes a lot of sense for a house like ours, located in a region that experiences a good number of gray days throughout the year.

The following pages detail our research and development.

• Hot Water Audit
• Experimental Solor Hot Water System
• Information on Heat Bank Storage
• Copper Pipe Heat Exchanger Test
• Mounting the Solar Heater