Udaipur Hosts a Nation-wide Solution: Solar Water Heaters

Written by Anna da Costa / 31 January 2009 / Read Anna da Costa's latest blog entries.

One of the simplest and most effective climate solutions we have come across as we traverse the Indian sub-continent is solar water heating.

Here in Udaipur, a city of mirroring lakes and canals, age old palaces, ornamented and armoured gateways and sleepy walkways, we have found just one such example.

The way they work is incredibly simple; a simple heat collector (the panels you can see), made up of a heat conducting material, such as metal, holds the water in a position perpendicular to the sun in a series of small tubes which link directly to an insulated water tank where the hot water is stored. As the water is heated within the collector, it naturally moves through the system by convection maintaining a flow of water through the system, and as such keeping it evenly heated.

This is one of the cheapest and simplest ways to heat water in hot countries, and can provide up between 85-100% of hot water needs for a household. An average 50-gallon system also displaces the use of 11.1 barrels of oil per year when replacing an electrically heated system.

Solar hot water heaters can also be adapted to work in cooler climates with technologies that convert light to heat energy and that have better insulation. Although this carries a high initial installation cost for the user, in the long run (with energy prices on the rise), it can save large amounts of money through minimising electricity costs. Typical payback period in the UK right now is 12 years for such a system, however in Australia, with it is now only 2 years thanks to government subsidisation!