Solar hot water is being presented as an either/or option. In our case, we've had solar pre-heating for at least 25 years and have a heat exchanger in our wood heater that pre-heats the water in the winter. And, i might add that everything was designed and installed by me. There is a very detailed tod archive on how i built my collectors some place.

They follow the roof line and don't stick up. Yes, i do have an intermediate tank (and in my case a pump. Although i do have a differential temperature controller system, i've simply switched to turning the pump on when it is appropriate- either manually or via a timer. A I think it is in my key post a trip to todd's as to how it works. If you can't find it, and are interested, i'll post more.

Solar hot water is one such technique that is enjoying a strong resurgence in popularity. A simple technique involves the placement of windows. The south side of a building always receives the most sunlight. Therefore, buildings designed for passive solar heating usually have large, south-facing windows. Materials that absorb and store the sun's heat can be built into the sunlit floors and walls. The floors and walls will then heat up during the day and slowly release heat at night, when the heat is needed most. This passive solar design feature is called direct gain. Other passive solar heating design features include sunspaces and trombe walls. A sunspace (which is much like a greenhouse) is built on the south side of a building. As sunlight passes through glass or other glazing, it warms the sunspace. Proper ventilation allows the heat to circulate into the building. On the other hand, a trombe wall is a very thick, south-facing wall, which is painted black and made of a material that absorbs a lot of heat. A pane of glass or plastic glazing, installed a few inches in front of the wall, helps hold in the heat.
Solar hot water is smart and cost effective technology that contributes towards energy efficiency.

Solar hot water is either an equivalent or a better investment than they would make for other means of producing hot water. And given the fact that you have got emissions reductions, given that you have got significant longevity in the system i think that we are going to see increasing uptake over time. Other energy experts have said that solar energy is a bit of a pet project for the government and that they should be spending their money on developing other energy efficient, you know, other ways like wind. You have got the new funding for the windfarm here in wa, have you got anything else that is coming out?. Look can i make one very key point about this and that is that we had a pretty vigorous debate early and in the middle of last year about the state of the solar industry and at that time the coalition and others made a series of claims which were shown to be completely wrong. They said that the solar industry was in freefall. In fact the figures very quickly showed that the opposite was happening - that the solar industry was actually experiencing record increase. And that will continue to happen certainly through the solar hot water industry but through the solar industry generally. And the reason or that is that we will see increasing uptake in solar pv's with a renewable energy target of 20 per cent of renewable energy by 2020 to be brought into place as policy, but especially because under the new renewable energy arrangements that we are proposing, people will have the opportunity to either put solar pv's or wind or even in those locations that allow it, small scale domestic hydro systems in. So that means that you have got a choice of technologies you can take advantage of if you want to get into renewable energy and my very strong surmise is that australian's will take up those opportunities very, very rapidly.

It's driving jobs and investment in this industry; and that is a very positive thing for us to be happening in the midst of the significant economic challenges that this country faces. [inaudible] environment issue, minister, your name's being invoked by both sides of the kimberley at the moment. Rob hirst said that he was hopeful or confident that you would veto the proposed gas plant. : well, i think that i've always said that there are two processes in play here. One is the process that's being undertaken by the state government, in terms of its negotiations with indigenous people and its participation in the site selection process as a part of our strategic assessment. I've communicated it on a number of occasions and i've said exactly the same thing and that is this: we recognise that there are significant environmental values in the kimberley.