Solar Hot Water
Solar hot water systems collect, store and use the heat from sunshine to make hot water. One of the most efficient means of solar energy, a solar hot water system can provide up to 60% of the average home’s hot water needs.
In fact, the U.S. Department of Energy estimates that over one million homes nationwide have a solar hot water system installed. This number is expected to grow as New York State and federal tax credits – which can exceed 50% of the cost – make solar hot water systems surprisingly affordable.
When we heat water with solar, we circulate a fluid called glycol through a series of solar panels. The fluid gets hot in the panels and then travels through a coil into your water storage tank. The glycol heats the cold water in the tank, cools off and heads back to the roof to get hot again.
If the water in your tank – which we say is "pre-heated" via the solar system – needs to be hotter, your existing system kicks in to finish the job. If it’s already hot enough, you’re all set.
Coming out of the tank, the heated water can be used for your:
- Household hot water that’s used for bathing, showering and washing. In the typical American home, this amounts to about 15 to 30 percent of the energy used.
- Radiant floor heating. Using tubes of warm water zig-zagged through your flooring, a radiant floor heating system simply radiates heat upward from the floor to provide optimum comfort and many other benefits.
- Home heating systems, whether traditional radiators or forced hot air.
- Pool heat exchange, which provides an economical and efficient alternative to direct fired pool heaters and is used for year-round heating of indoor pools in colder climates.
At SunStream USA, we design and install state-of-the-art solar hot water systems using the latest technology. Featuring advanced German engineering integrated here in the United States, these systems have been proven highly efficient in more than 40,000 installations worldwide.
