Solar Water Heating: What's Hot and What's Not

A handful of electric utilities in the United States now pay incentives to their customers to install solar water heaters or are developing programs to do so. The solar water heater incentives are part of a broader utility demand-side management program designed to reduce system demand during peak summer hours. Solar hot water has the potential to generate significant savings during periods of high solar intensity. For summer peaking utilities, these periods of high solar intensity coincide with the overall system peak. This paper discusses the basics of analyzing solar water heaters as a demand-side management measure. In addition, four utility solar water heater incentive programs are studied in detail. The paper describes each program and notes the stage of development. Where such information is available, incentive amounts and cost-effectiveness calculations are included