Cheaping Out on Water Heater Systems

If you review the availability of solar water heater systems, you’ll find a large

range of prices and performances, and you’ll discover that some systems

don’t work very well in cold climates. If you’re in a climate where tempera-

tures can drop below freezing, the pipes or the collector in some solar water

heaters can burst (but the manufacturer will never tell you that).

Now picture this scenario: It took six men to lift the collector onto your roof,

and this was after it took an hour to pull the thing out of its very large, very

expensive packing crate that was delivered via truck because UPS doesn’t

deliver anything that big. So now you need to get six men to lift it back down,

repack it, and send it back to the factory for warranty repairs. The company

fixes it, repacks it, then trucks it back to you (warranty repairs generally

don’t cover shipping costs, so you’ll have to pay those). Then you must find

six men to lift the collector back into place on your roof. But you still have

the same problem: You cheaped out and bought a system not made for your

particular climate.

The point of all this? Be very thorough when researching and selecting a

solar water heater system. It’s the best thing under the sun, but it can be the

worst if you don’t do your homework.

Your Eyes Are Bigger Than Your Stomach

Any solar system that generates more energy than you use is a waste. You

save nothing by using a solar system at less than its full capacity. If you

install a solar water heater that’s too big, you’ve wasted money. If you install

an intertie system that’s too big, you get nothing for the excess power that

you don’t use (although to be fair, this is changing).

Skipping the Groundwork

Strictly speaking, you don’t have to do an energy audit and take conservation

steps before installing a solar system. But bypassing these processes violates

the spirit of solar philosophy. Actually, I don’t really have to put this item in

this list because you’re already an environmentalist, right?Going with the Cheapest Bid

Because It’s the Cheapest

Do I really need to elaborate? In case I do, let me just remind you that you get

what you pay for. Cheap usually means more headaches, shoddy quality, and

more money in the long run. Spend a little more money up front for quality

equipment and better workmanship. In the end, you’ll be glad you did.

Ignoring Murphy’s Law

If you think I’m just joking when I talk about Murphy’s Law, think again. I’ve

been doing projects since I was 5. I’ve done easy ones, I’ve done hard ones.

I’ve been in the linear particle accelerator at Stanford University working on

projects with doctors and engineers who have fancy degrees and thousands

of years’ worth of experience. Here’s the bottom line: Nothing ever goes the

way it’s supposed to. Never (unless your goal is to do something stupid; then

things tend to work out even better than you planned).

Measure twice, cut once. Then be prepared for anything, and always be

patient. Every project involves art and science. The science part is usually

obvious, and that’s what attracts most people. The art is in smiling when

things go awry.The solar power industry is changing daily, along with the technology.

Following are suggestions on how to protect yourself:

 ✓ Don’t look just at the price; look at the system’s long-term reliability.

It’s almost always the case that time-tested technology works better

than radical new technology. It’s not just a question of whether some-

thing works or not; it’s also a question of whether something works

for years and years, because that’s what you’re ultimately looking for.

Bottom line: In general, if it sounds to good to be true, it is. If you talk

to a contractor who wants to install a radical new technology that will

solve all your problems for half the cost that other contractors are bid-

ding, run for the hills.

 ✓ Pay attention to the amount of experience the contractor has. With

the economy suffering, there are a lot of “solar contractors” who were

electrical contractors or plumbers only a year ago. They work out of

their garage, and have very little overhead rate. You may get a fine

system installed by one of these contractors, but you should wonder if

your warranty will be honored a few years down the road. You should

also wonder if the system will operate as optimally as possible, because

experience counts for a lot. Every solar installation is a little different,

despite the fact that the equipment may be exactly the same. It’s in the

details where good contractors pay off. You may be tempted by the

lowest price, but you should be skeptical of the lowest price as well. You

can get information on the veracity of contractors over the Internet.

 ✓ Get conversant about solar power. The simple fact is, you need to

understand solar to the point where you can critically judge the equip-

ment that you’re buying. The less you need to trust the contractor’s

performance claims, the better off you will be. In fact, when you under-

stand how your equipment is going to work, you can tell how good a

contractor is by simply noting whether or not he exaggerates the future

system’s performance.

 ✓ Ask for a performance guarantee. Even with a good contractor, you

can’t always get this because performance depends on how much sun-

light you ultimately get. But when you ask, you’ll get a sense of your

contractor’s honesty by the way they respond to your request. In fact, if

your contractor is more than happy to give you a performance guaran-

tee, you should be skeptical.