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Solar shed heats water, saves money
Bruce Lawton grew up with solar panels on the roof of his Houston home. Four boys played soccer, he recalled, and they never ran out of hot water.
But when his parents sold the house, their agent told them to get ride of "those things on the roof." They did, and it sold right away.
Today, with energy prices headed for the stratosphere, Lawton said, "People still aren't adopting solar, and I wondered why."
The obstacles to putting in some solar-power devices, Lawton said, are roof direction, appearance and price. And homeowners associations can frown on rooftop apparatus.
He's willing to bet that his solar shed, manufactured and installed in cooperation with Leesburg's Dogwood Builders, will solve all those problems and make quite a few converts. At least one HOA has amended its rules to welcome the shed.
The solar shed looks like any other garden shed. It really is a garden shed. Or it could be a playhouse or a gardening center or whatever the homeowner wants to do with the space. It just also happens to heat the family's water. And it can be sited on the lot to face the roof to the south for maximum sun exposure. That's a lot easier, Lawton said, than shopping around for a house with correct roofline in a community with a solar-sympathetic HOA.
And the government will help the homeowner pay for it. The 8-by-8-foot shed in Lawton's yard cost just less than $7,000 after $2,000 tax credit from the federal government.
The shed circulates water in small pipes under the roof covering to pick up the heat energy from the sun. When the water is about 8 degrees hotter than the setting on the water heater in the basement 64 feet away, the water drains down from the roof and into a 10-gallon tank next to the water heater. It transfers its heat to the water heater, and – when the sun is out and the pump kicks in – heads back to the roof for another sunbath.
There's a thermostat to get the water all drained out of the roof if the temperature falls below freezing. In the morning, when the sun hits the roof, the pump sends the water back up. It's called a "drain back" system, Lawton said, and he chose it over the more high-tech circulating antifreeze systems for its simplicity.
He flipped the switch on his water heater Labor Day and let the sunshine do its thing. Except for the day his son treated himself to a hourlong shower, he's not run out of hot water.
And his electricity bills should be 20 to 40 percent lower.
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