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Hw
Hot water - domestic.
hot water
Hot water is an element you do not have to live without when you go off-the-grid. There are many ways to heat water without buying electricity or fuel from the grid. Some, like solar thermal, can also provide backup heating for your home!
How hot water works on-grid:
How hot water works off-the-grid:
There is another source of energy to heat water, the sun! People have known about this for a very long time. In fact, solar hot water heating predates solar PV panels by several decades. There are numerous ways to heat water with the sun from simple, DIY integral storage collectors to modern solar thermal panels with heat exchange tanks. There’s even a clever way to do it with solar electricity using something called a load dump system, meaning that when your batteries are full of power and your solar panels are still generating more, the excess power can be used to heat water.
Since the sun is not always available, it is advisable to have a backup water heating system, such as an in-line tankless hot water heater that uses propane. And while propane
is a fossil fuel, it is technically off-the-grid since it is not connected by pipes owned by a utility company, rather it is stored in refillable tanks on site.
Whether you choose to use solar energy for heating your water with no backup or go with a system that ensures you have uninterrupted access to hot water, harnessing the heat from the sun can do the heavy lifting that the grid would normally be doing at expense to you and the planet.
How hot water relates to the other Elements of an Off-Grid Home:
COMFORTABLE SHELTER
If you choose any type of solar hot water heating system you’ll need the correct orientation to place the panels on your roof or near your building on the ground. If you choose a heater with an integral storage tank, you’ll need to make sure that your roof structure can carry the weight, water is heavy!
onsite power
As much as possible you will want to keep the needs of your hot water system off of your power system as heating can be a huge drain on your batteries. The only exception being the load dump system mentioned above.
Onsite water
When you are living with onsite water, conservation is a priority. If you locate your water source near and your fixtures your hot water tank there will be less water wasted running through the lines to get hot water out of the fixture. You can also consider installing a hot water recirculation system that has a manual valve that recirculates the water back to the beginning of the system until the water flowing is hot. This means you aren’t sending any cool water down the drain unnecessarily.
YOU!
