"Dan Caster" wrote in message
m...
In some locations ( not the Pacific Northwest ) solar hot water
augmentation does have a low ROI of about a year or two. By this I
mean use of solar hot water collectors used to reduce the energy used
for heating hot water. This was as I remember from a hospital in
Florida that used simple Black pvc pipe solar heaters to reduce their
energy costs. Other things they looked at or tried were not cost
effective. One of the keys is figuring out what amount of
augmentation is economical.

Domestic hot water has long been recognized as the most cost-effective use
of direct solar energy conversion. Passive home heating is next, although it
usually must be designed into a new house. Active home heating is marginal
and depends on proper siting as well as amortizing large investments.
Lifetime maintenance costs and true amortization often are not figured into
active heating, which makes many of the figures unreliable.

What I was asking about is solar electricity generation. It still looks like
we're on a cloud about this one, in which the net effect is a loss of
energy, or a break-even at best, as well as very high costs.

But I haven't tried to keep up with this field for over a decade. If there's
something new, I'm interested.

Ed Huntress