.Net Jonesie - Free Hot Water

Friday, November 04, 2005

Something to change the subject. I ordered a solar water heating system for home yesturday. When I saw how much the Chief of Contact Energy got for a pay rise and how much our power bills have gone up in the last year I thought it was about time to get some money back.

We ordered the Sola 60 system. In our new house it's a very easy install. Sola 60 use our existing hot water cylinder where most of the other vendors replace this with a new one, so this helps keep the cost down. The placement of the panel and the pitch and position of our roof make it a very easy install.

It's costing us $NZ 5074 for a 4-5 person system. Our monthly power bill averages $300 in winter - we have 3 kids who like loooooonnnnnngggggg showers! The sales man from Sola 60 told us that the average power bill is 1/3 hot water and the new system will cover 75% of the electricity cost of this in winter and 100% in summer (this equates with other quotes and comments I've seen). My rough estimate is that it will save us an average of $90 a month - call it $1000 a year. So after 5 years we are in profit. Better yet, there's an interest free loan of $3000 for 3 years so the initial expense won't hit the mortgage. I wish we had done it when we built the house.

Now all I need is a system to generate hydrogen and a fuel cell car and I can give the single finger wave to the energy merchants!

Friday, November 04, 2005 3:31:17 PM (New Zealand Daylight Time, UTC+13:00)

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