I’m really looking forward to the solar hot water information night on Friday. I’m hoping to find out whether it is possible to retrofit some kind of solar heating (or at least boosting) to my off-peak electric hot water system. It’s in good condition and it seems wasteful (and expensive!) to get rid of it just to go solar, so I’m hoping there’s an economical way to convert it.
Even if there isn’t, I’d like to get a good idea about how much a solar system will cost to install and run. Maybe it’s economical to get one even without considering our existing system.
Anyway, details for the information night:
– Venue: **Gerringong Town Hall** ([click to view map](http://maps.google.com/maps?q=Gerringong+Town+Hall&sll=-34.745333,150.82778&sspn=0.006823,0.007199&ie=UTF8&ll=-34.746267,150.827608&spn=0.007035,0.007199&t=h&z=17&iwloc=A))
– Date: **Friday 21 November 2008**
– Time: **5:30pm – 8:00pm**
There will be displays from suppliers, experts will be on hand to dispense technical advice, and some suppliers will be providing special offers to attendees.
Suppliers attending include:
– FX Larkin
– Quantum Apollo Heat Pump
– Endless Solar
– Ecosmart
– Illawarra Hot Water
– Earth Utility
– Rinnai
– Solarhart
There will also be finger food served from 6:00pm – 7:00pm, followed by an information session from 7:00pm – 7:30pm presented by [Jamberoo FutureCare](http://jamberoofuturecare.googlepages.com/home).
If you’re going to attend, phone Pip on 4232 0419 so they can organise catering. Pip can also provide you with more information if you need it.
Follow-up: The information night was a big success – you can read my write-up [here](http://green-change.com/2008/11/23/solar-hot-water-research/).
Hi Darren,
We have electric hot water and to reduce our consumption, i’ve turned the temperature down for summer (we turn it up a bit for winter) – and our off peak electricity usage went from 1,400Kw/qtr to about 750Kw/qtr. (we are a household of 2 in southern sydney)
That and a couple of other small changes – lightglobes, switching off the stereo at the powerpoint, and using the electric heater much much less in winter has brought our average Kw/day down from over 25 to around 18ish.
Good luck!
Sarah
Thanks for the info, Sarah! I was going to check our hot water temperature too.
I think from memory it’s turned up fairly high – I was concerned that with 5 people in the house we’d run out, but we never have so it’s obviously a bit high. Also off-peak used to only come on at night, but now it seems to come on at various times during the day so the tank gets more than one chance to “top up” the hot water each day.
I’m sure we’ve got other electricity wasters around the house too. I’ve got a plug-in power meter, so I’m going around checking all our major appliances to get a good handle on where it’s all going. I’ll write a post on that soon!