Anyone ever converted your standard household electric water heater to solar power?

[testdepth]

I have a standard 40 gallon water heater and I'm looking to see how hard it is to convert it to solar? If you did it how did you do it? Was there a kit to buy and whose solar panels did you use?

I can build most anything.

 

[Dirt Ball]

Check out YouTube. There are a ton of videos for DIY solar water heater builds. Learn from everyone else’s mistakes.

My bust... I reread your thread. Water heater electric to solar, water heater is probably 240 v, 15 ~ 20 amps. You’ll need an inverter, lots of battery and several solar panels. I’m not smart enough to tell you what size inverter, how many batteries or how many solar panels.

 

[dhal22]

A maintenance nightmare. I serviced a few conversions before giving up, just too many headaches.

 

[joel2000]

Do away with the electrical portion and use pool heater solar panels and a pump. Just use it as a storage tank.

 

[roundhouse]

You don’t need hot water on rainy days ?

 

[joel2000]

You don’t need hot water on rainy days ?

Nah… cold showers. Sounded good till you posted that. Lol…
seriously, friend of mine had his roof covered with those panels to heat his pool. They did a helluva job too. But, he did have a backup electric heater.

 

[Gubydooc]

I've watched solar for 20 years, If "they" wanted us to have green energy, it'd be affordable & sustainable.

 

[JekyllTidesFisher3181]

No

 

[rockyfatcat]

Solar is like an electric car. It’ll probably be great in about 25 years. But right now it ain’t there yet.

 

[roundhouse]

Nah… cold showers. Sounded good till you posted that. Lol…
seriously, friend of mine had his roof covered with those panels to heat his pool. They did a helluva job too. But, he did have a backup electric heater.

I’d love to have solar water and some voltaic panels for electricity .

I just ain’t paying $60k for it .
All your doing , even with all the tax credits , is prepaying your next 25 years utility bills , with borrowed money .

I did have to take down two large trees and now have some good southern exposure on the roof .
Might look into it one day .