The Bill Comes Due

You know the feeling don't you?  You open up, say, the credit card bill at month's end and you think, all those little numbers cannot possibly add up to that BIG number at the bottom of the bill.  Unfortunately, all those little numbers do add up.  And so it is true with my solar hot water project.

Jumping to the bottom, the number is $12,000, give or take a little depending on what you include.  And, yes, that is a lot.  But I was not trying to do a budget job, and mistakes along the way cost mucho dinaro.  Still, assuming the federal government pays for 30% that leaves only $8400 for me to make up with oil savings and still seems possible within a few years.  More feedback on that later.

There are a handful of big ticket items and about one hundred smaller purchases.  To begin, let's talk about the larger items or main components which total $6353.12.

System Vendor Date Description Price 1 Solar Panels EcoDirect.com 08/04/11 Solar Panels $2,829.85 2 Tank Houseneeds 09/25/11 Hot water tank $1,825.08 3 Hydronics Houseneeds 08/09/11 Pump Station, fittings $557.83 4 Hydronics Portland Group 04/12/11 NA26711 Caleffi pump $363.63 5 Controller House Needs 03/29/11 iSolar Plus Controller $333.75 6 Hydronics SunVolt Energy 11/03/11 Ecocirc Pump $189.25 7 Solar PV Amazon 10/10/11 two 20 W Solar Panels $156.48 8 Hydronics Houseneeds 08/25/11 Fittings for pump station $97.25 The largest most expensive purchase, by far, is the panels at about $3000.  The good news is that EcoDirect has very reasonable shipping at $130.  The same shipping from AltE would have been over $1000.  It is also worth noting that the price would have been a lot lower if I could have used two 4×10' panels rather than three 4×6'. The second most expensive item is the solar hot water tank.  At about $1800, the price might be more than a little surprising to anyone that has purchased an electric hot water tank for, say, $400.  But there are two things to keep in mind.  First, this tank has a heat exchanger inside so I didn't need to configure an external heat exchanger and a second pump.  Second, this is a stainless steel tank that should last more than twice as long as a standard steel tank.  At least that is what I am hoping and the lifetime warranty makes me believe. Items 3,4,5, and 8 basically make up all of the Califfi Solar Pump station including the pump, controller and fittings.  This is a whopping $1,352 which seems like an awful lot for what it does.  The Caleffi equipment is nice, but it seems grossly overpriced.  Caleffi does nicely put all the little plumbing components (check valve, pump, temperature gauges, pressure gauge, air bleeder, fill ports, controller) all into one nice little package.  But the price will make the budget conscious person think about making there own system instead of buying from Caleffi. Item 6 is me having to buy the pump a second time because the Caleffi pump really isn't the right one for the job.  I have listed the old pump on ebay and Amazon and hope to recover some of the money Item 7 is the solar panels, which were also purchased twice for this job.  First I bought two 10 watt panels and then discovered that they were too small, then I bought two 20 watt panels.  Also, my insistence on using solar electric power contributed greatly to the cost of this system.  In addition to the cost of the PV panels, the pump is more expensive and the controls and electronics are more complex.   It is no wonder that AC power is used for most of these systems. All-in-All, these main components represent only 50% of the total system cost.  The "balance of system" or other parts cost just is much which is shocking.  I will cover those costs in a separate post.