I was wondering if anyof the members have any idea of which would be the best option when my traditional electrical hot water service dies. (I think it is on its last legs). We usually spend about 6 months of the year in our van. One long period of 3-4 months and other periods of about 2 weeks at a time. I always turn off the electric hws when we are away. This would not be an option with solar hws, would this be a problem? We have solar panels on the roof of the house and do not get a power bill. Any thoughts would be appreciated. Cheers Pete
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If there is such a thing as a tourist season.... why cant we shoot them?
Personally I would opt for either a solahart or an Edwards solar water heater.I bought mine(Solahart) and paid it off over four years interest free on my power bill.
I only ever had to use the booster for less than a week over that period.Yes sunny Qld but I still think it's a good option.
We would suggest solar hot water. We had ours installed last Sept and like Yuglamron have only turned booster (switch in meter box) on once and found we needn't have done that. Ours has a thermostat switch which must be left on - it makes sure the water in panels doesn't freeze. Our only cost from havi9ng the solar HW has been the fee they charge to read we haven't used any power for the HW! One of our kids had a heatpump and it was very noisy.
I'm out of my league here when it comes to knowledge on solar HWS but it does occur to me that it maybe worthwhile discussing the amount of time you're away from home with the supplier in case there are any issues.
Being an electrician for over 50 years and now seeing whats happening in the electric water heating scene my opinion would be an instantaneous gas system you just pay for what you use and no noisey compressor running even though their efficiency is very good I think just keep it maintained yearly and you will be happy for many years to come and better off in the long term
Peter my mate has gas and has set up 2 x 9kg cylinder for the gas so he dosen't have to worry about the big cylinder and the gas contractor calling in and filling the cylinder at a huge price you could buy a instantaneous gas system under $1000 plus fiting
Why would you replace the HWS with a Solar HWS when you state you have no bills at the moment for power.
A new electric will cost you less than half a solar unit and as you already turn it off when away you can continue to do the same.
A Solar HWS can have the boost element turned off when you are away, but the boost element would probably not be in operation anyway, but you probably would need to keep the small pump switched on, that pumps the water up to the solar panels, but this only comes into operation when the sun is shining and only if the water in the tank needs to be heated
A heat pump HWS could be turned off when you are away and will use about 75% less power to heat the water than standard HWS but will still cost about as much as Solar system to install.
Beware the instant gas systems. We installed one of those in our last house and were never happy with it.
- It fires up when the flow through the unit reaches a certain pressure, we found that on a hot day we couldn't have a cool shower as if you turned the hot water down to the level of comfort the unit wouldn't fire up and all you got was cold water.
- Each time you turned the hot tap on and off again, such as when rinsing dishes, there is a 'blip' of cold water in the pipe, rather than there being a continuous flow of hot available.
