Solar Hot Water Systems

One of the biggest advantages of living in the sunshine state is, of course, lots of sunshine! Rockhampton gets on average 121 full sun days,151 partly sunny days which gives a total of 272 days with sunshine per year! This makes Rockhampton perfect for the use of solar hot water systems. You may already have solar set up on your home and ask your self why would I need to have a solar hot water system as well? Traditional Electric hot water units function by using an internal heating element. These draw allot of power when being used and whilst running them on off-peak can help with your power bill they will still use a considerable amount of energy per year even if you have solar power installed on your house. The main reason for this is due to requiring a large amount of energy in a short period of time the solar on your house is not equipped to handle these sort of loads and so even if you run your traditional hot water system in the middle of a sunny day you would still end up drawing from the grid. This is were solar hot water units differ from traditional solar as these units actually heat the water for you they don’t produce energy. With 272 days of sunshine per year, this is a fantastic way to save money! For times when there are prolonged periods of rain or lack of sunshine you simply switch on your booster which turns on the traditional element style heating to provide you with hot water during these times. These systems can produce up to 90% of all your hot water needs annually which will definitely save you a large amount on your power bill. To give you an idea we estimate the average electric hot water system in Queensland running on off-peak at night would use around $1000 per year with a solar hot water system you could cut this back to around $100 per year that’s a saving of $900 per year.