Solar Hot Water? No Problem?

Things have changed, for solar water heating!
. . . Solar PV Panels are now available for $1 a Watt or less shipped to your door,
. . . making them the low cost choice.

When I first started to want solar hot water,
. . . I considered piping in a water type solar collector from outside.
Then I watched videos and e-mailed a few people that did that, and
. . . found a few problems.

First, Piped systems cost thousands of dollars, and
. . . if you don't put in some sort of system to drain back the water,
. . . you are going to have freeze problems and possible panel damage and leaks.
. . . Setting that up is not fun,
. . . . . . you have problems with air in the system.
. . . . . . It needs to be designed to TOTALY drained,
. . . . . . or it will still have problems.
. . . It costs a lot and gets complicated.
. . . More stuff to worry about in the winter.

The other option is to drain it every time the temp drops.
.. . Well, if you do that, there goes free winter hot water and what if you forget?
. . . I like simple and automatic stuff I don't have to mess with.

And then there's the plumbing, all over the place.
. . . It's a maintenance nightmare and still a costly install.


So a system with solar electric PV is the only way to go. Wires are easy to run.

What if I connect the solar PV panels direct to the element.
But you get little total daily heat that way unless you have the extra space and
. . . want to throw lots of panels at the problem.

Another choice would be to mess with a perfectly working expensive tank?
So I found the Solar Hybrid Controller using MPPT.

It's super simple to install,
. . . with few components to go bad and
. . . just sits there quietly and works every day saving money with no worries and
. . . little up front cost.

The idea is -- how simple and hassle free can it be?

That beats most of the other systems out there.
. . . All DIY, easy install with no plumbing nightmare, no soldering, no leaks, and
. . . no worry of freezing.  Almost anyone can wire up 2 wires.

Installing wires instead of pipes is much easier, and it gives me other options,
. . . like if the grid goes down during a bad emergency,

Now it would be great, if I could simply chose to power from,
. . . emergency back-up batteries, and hot water.

Simple is better.

11-19-2014 Source:  Solar Hot Water?  No Problem?