Very good question.   A tankless heater heats water on demand but has no tank.   You will still pay for the fuel whether it is electric or gas, but you will not pay for the cost of keeping the water hot after it is heated because of course there is no tank. The cost of keeping the water hot after it is heated is called standby costs.    Fuel costs are 85% and standby costs are 15%, so you will be saving 15% of the total cost of heating water.    On the other hand a solar water heater will be heated by the sun for free so you will save the 85% of the fuel costs.  You will only have to pay for the 15% standby cost.   By not paying for the fuel you are saving the lion's share of the cost.   The big savings in solar is that you won't have to pay for the rising cost of any fossil fuel which will get higher year after year as our fossil fuels are depleted.  Remember-we aren't making dinasours anymore!!

Our average solar water heater costs about $7,000 up front.  But don't forget about the 30% federal tax credit which is $2,100.  You get this when you file for your federal income tax in January.  This is a dollar for dollar credit like the child care credit and its money you wont have to pay Uncle Sam.  In addition, their is a $1,000 rebate available to anybody in the Gulf Power Area.  You have to go to their website, Gulfpower.com and click on the "Renewable" prompt to get a reservation for the $1,000.   They will come out and do an energy audit, we put the system in, they come out and check again, and then issue a check.  After both of these discounts, the final cost of the solar system will be $3,900.00    Now,  the tankless heaters we have installed cost between $2,500 and $3,500.  Considering the advantages of solar it is a pretty easy decision for most people to make.

We have changed out three tankless water heaters after less than 10 years of service.   This pales in comparison to solar.   Muth & Sons has solar water heaters that have been in service with almost the same original equipment for over 30 years.   This difference is because the gas burners on the tankless heaters have to burn every time water is heated and used.   With solar, the only time the water heating elements come on are when the sun doens't shine or for a short time to keep the water at a useable temperature.   This grand feature of solar is the reason that many solar water heaters will last more than 50 years, almost 5 times longer that a tankless or conventional water heater.

It's the upfront cost of solar that is stopping the parade of solar.  Many people simply don't have that kind of money to invest in solar.   We are finding that most of our solar customers are older and have the money in savings.  If we could get a bank or institution to make low interest long term loans you would see a huge amount of solar being installed everywhere.  In some cities,  the county or city commission could take bond money and loan it to the citizens at a very low interest rate for them to invest in solar.  This is happening in many cities across America.

It sounds like it at first.  But as most people are aware,  if you get something for free, there is probably a hitch to it.   The hitch in this case is this------they will be glad to do it considering that over say---a ten year period, you will pay them in the neighborhood of $13-14,000 for your "free" hot water.  We've figured this cost out many times and thats why we shriek whenever we see people buy a conventional water heater without considering what it is going to cost down the road. 

Pat  recieved his first training at the Florida Solar Energy Center in 1981.   He had subsequent training in 1991 and just a summer ago another college level course.  This is not to mention working on and repairing any and all types of solar out there anywhere around the Panama City area.  Sons Patrick and Brian also completed the college course the summer of 2012 and Brian recieved the highest training possible in solar hot water. Nabcep is the top drawer of training so here you are dealing with real experts.

Why yes there is.  Just read the paper or watch the news.  Today, (11/6/13) our Panama City newspaper announced that Gulf Power will have an increase of 7.6% starting in January 2014 and will follow that up with another increase of 9.2% in April for a combined increase of 16.8%.   The power company says that this increase is because of higher fuel charges that they have to pay so they are passing it on to us.