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Re:Ask HN: What can be done to prevent a climate catastrophe? by Retric on Wednesday October 10, 2018 @10:42AM (#18185301)
Solar hot water heaters are cheap and work very well for home heating outside the arctic circle.

In the US we mostly use them for pool heating, as anything else costs to much, but somehow they are ignored for other uses.

Re:Ask HN: What can be done to prevent a climate catastrophe? by anonuser123456 on Wednesday October 10, 2018 @11:05AM (#18185541)
Solar water heaters are not cheap. 1 square meter of evacuated solar tubing with a storage tank is > 4k, before installation. That 1 m^2 will give you at most 500w of solar gain for 2-3 hours... in total maybe 5k BTU. That's a factor of 20 off relative to existing systems.
Re:Ask HN: What can be done to prevent a climate catastrophe? by Retric on Wednesday October 10, 2018 @11:25AM (#18185739)
That's not what I am talking about. Bulk collectors for a single home are ~500$. Flat plates run $1,000 - $2,500 per home. Evacuated tubes cost more and collect less energy, but produce hotter water. https://modernize.com/home-ideas/34541/solar-water-heater-co...

1 square meter evacuated solar tubing is used for hot water systems not home heating. It's a question of output temperature, the warmer the water the less cost efficient and more costly the system. High end systems include a backup water heater which means you directly save 1k on a hot water heater.

Anyway, for home heating you don't need 'hot' water, a heat pump operating on even 60f water vs 0f or below air is very efficient. You can also pre heat cold water with a flat plate feed that into your normal water heater and again save a lot of energy.

PS: Also, many people pay 1,000-2000$ / year on home heating even with a well insulated house. These systems generally have payback period under 10 years, assuming you actually need significant amounts of heat.