Cohousing-L Mailing List: Hot Water Solar Heat

[Kathleen Nolan (kathleennolan]

Here at Bellingham Cohousing in Washington state we are working on a
proposal to install a solar hot water heater on the roof of our common house
to support the hot water use there, mainly clothes washers and a dishwasher.
Our members were wondering if there were any other communities that had
researched this type of solar power or had installed one. If so, what was
your experience? Did it perform as expected? Did you see energy costs go
down? What are the maintenance costs? Did the installation go as planned?
What would you do different? Has it presented any problems that you had not
anticipated? Was the installation cost as expected?Thanks for any
information you would be willing to share.
Kathleen