Before deciding whether or not a water heating system with solar panels is a good fit for you, there are a few things you need to consider. Among those are the suitability and the benefits. Is it a practical alternative and will you see a return on your investment through the money you save with reduced bills and feed-in tariffs? The first step in answering those questions is exploring how the whole system works.
The power aspect of it all uses PV panels that are affixed to your roof. These panels are designed to catch the heat that radiates from the sun. There are flat plate collectors and evacuated tubes, and the collectors can actually be installed to appear to be a natural part of your roof. These collectors then feed that heat through specially made tubes in to the water that is stored in a cylinder that is factory fitted into an immersion heater. Also called a boiler. This is essentially your hot water heater.
A few of the benefits associated with, and can be realized by, the installation of a solar water heater system is that you retain hot water year round. During the winter months the sun still radiates heat, just not to the degree that is realized in the summer, so you will need to keep the heater or boiler working a bit longer to heat the water.
With that aside though, you will still be able to reduce your water heating bill significantly, helping to offset the solar panels cost . And that also in turn leads to reducing your carbon footprint which is good for everyone in the long run.
But perhaps the most important part of all is can you legally do it? Check with the municipality in which you live and see if this sort of home improvement project can be approved, and if so, what kind of paperwork needs to be filed and what kind of fee's need to get paid. Most cities and towns around the world these days are loosening up their city and building codes so as to make it easier to install systems such as these.
