On Thu, 24 Nov 2005 05:12:38 +0000, David Hansen
wrote:

On Wed, 23 Nov 2005 18:01:06 +0000 someone who may be Peter Parry
wrote this:-

Solar water heating has no advantages at all over any
other form of water heating,

Really. So not burning gas or electricity and thus reducing
greenhouse gas emissions is not an advantage?

No, because it is trivially insignificant. If every house in the UK
went to solar water heating tomorrow it would have a negligible
effect upon world greenhouse gas emissions. Indulging in posture
politics and switching off brain as soon as "global warming" is
mentioned simply distracts from the real problem which isn't in the
UK or capable of being solved by the UK.

Not running a boiler all the year round is not an advantage?

No, because the solar supply is unreliable - you still need
conventional water heating available. If you switch off the boiler
for the summer and rely upon a daytime immersion heater for the times
the solar water heating is inadequate the small saving it makes is
wiped out in a few days.

as well as making no economic sense is visually unattractive

I suspect we are getting to your real motives now.

Try not to be a prat all your life.

Do you think that
a panel built into a roof www.imaginationsolar.com is unattractive?

Actually, yes, nearly all the examples shown are pretty awful. Not
all roofs are dull grey.

Solar water heating will never make sense in the vast majority of
situations in the UK.

As others have said, mass production and installation in new
buildings will even change the economics.

Possibly, but we are talking about retrofitting today - not built in
tomorrow.


--
Peter Parry.
http://www.wpp.ltd.uk/