Most households get their domestic hot water for washing dishes and clothes, bathing and cooking from a water heating system.

The system may vary from an electric or gas-fired water heater, to a boiler or furnace that are also used for heating the home. Using electricity for heating water is expensive. Using electricity to heat water will keep pinching the hip pocket nerve. Also, gas water heaters will be phased out too, despite them being a cheaper form of water heating than using electricity, they present safety problems when used in confined spaces.

There is a solution. Using a solar hot water system is one of the most viable, economic and energy efficient water heating systems available today. It uses radiant heat from sunlight as the energy source. Because the heating doesn't come from burning fossil fuel, there are no pollutants and greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide, nitrous oxides, and sulfur oxides being released into the environment.

A short video might help you understand the working of a solar water heater.

By installing a solar water heater, you can bring down your water heating bills by 50%–80%. That figure depends on the amount of water you need heated and how much is used. Moreover, by relying on your installed roof top solar hot water system, you are not going to be affected by gas shortages and electricity price swings. You might even add a solar PV system to reduce that electric cost as well.

If you're building a new home or refinancing, the economic benefits of solar heating are attractive. You can often include the purchase price of a solar water heater in your new home within a multi-year mortgage. In some places there are federal income tax deductions for mortgage interest available for the solar.

So, you can be saving money each month on hot water. Month on month, you save more than you would paying for electricity and gas for a conventional heater, making the solar investment worthwhile. A solar water heating system can deliver 50 to 90 percent of the daily hot water needs of an average home through the colder months.

There will always be variation due to the different usage requirements of every household plus the difference for location affecting the amount of sunlight received.

With solar collectors you can reduce the amount of energy being used for heating. You will still need a backup: an electric, gas or wood heating source to compensate for solar energy shortfall. Even then, the proposition is profitable. This is because the sun's natural energy provides almost 75 percent of your heating needs, thereby substantially reducing the amount of energy needed for heating through back-ups.

The solar energy factor (SEF) and solar fraction (SF) are used to determine a solar water heater's energy efficiency. Solar energy factor is defined as the energy delivered by the system divided by the electrical or gas energy put into the system.

Higher the number, the more energy efficient is the heating system. Optimum solar energy factors range from 1.0 to 11. Systems with solar energy factors of 2 or 3 are most widely used.

Another solar water heater performance measuring unit is the solar fraction. Solar fraction is the amount of energy provided by the solar technology including tank standby losses, divided by the total energy required. Higher the solar fraction, the greater is the solar contribution to water heating.

This reduces the energy required by the backup water heater. The solar fraction varies from 0 to 1.0 with zero for no solar energy contribution to 1.0 for all energy being provided by solar. The solar savings fraction of a particular system is dependent on many factors such as the load, the collector and storage sizes, the operation, and the climate. Standard solar factors range between 0.5 to 0.75.

Faucet flow rates can't exceed 2.5 GPM at 80 psi or 2.2 GPM at 60 psi. By installing low-flow fixtures you can make considerable water savings (in the order of 25%–60%).

Current kitchen faucets come equipped with aerators that restrict flow rates to 2.2 GPM. Similarly, modern bathroom faucets restrict flow rates to between 1.5 and 0.5 GPM.

Reducing the amount of hot water wastage offers an inexpensive way to save energy. Because less hot water is wasted less pressure is on the solar water heater to heat so much water.

• Turn down the thermostat on your water heater, and insulate your water heater along with the hot and cold water pipes.
• Use energy efficient dishwashers and clothes washers.

Instantaneous (tankless) water heaters are energy efficient, but due to their lack of storage, they are not a feasible choice for families. A hot water system in a house should be equipped to handle multiple and simultaneous uses of hot water.

These instantaneous water heaters save energy because they only heat water when it is needed. So, in that way they are more efficient than a conventional storage water heater.

Homeowners are installing solar hot water systems because they benefit from saving electricity (therefore money) and getting tax rebates. A large population is still to be convinced that there are benefits to going with solar PV or converting to solar thermal heaters for their hot water.

The technology is simple to install but there are promotional and educational gaps. As with solar PV installations, the upfront cost of the installed solar hot water system also tends to be an impediment for some people who have considered and said "No".

The solar PV electricity generation technologies along with the solar hot water heating technologies are bound for steady progressive growth. Research, adaption and innovation with these solar technologies constantly improves their efficiency and their applications. There are hybrid collectors available which can now provide hot water and electricity at the same time.

The price of solar voltaic panels has dropped leading to making hot water using solar electricity less expensive. You can now connect roof solar panels via an inverter (that costs $300 to $500 dollars) directly to a standard instantaneous electric hot water heater.

There is free or lower priced electricity with solar power plus tax incentives to help with energy efficiency. Due to the cost of power and the efficiency of electric water heater heating thermal solar water heating can make less economic sense to those householders with a PV solar system.

The increased price of fossil fuels and rising awareness of solar options are contributing to the growth of solar PV systems being used in heating water. The efficiency of thermal solar for water heating makes the solar hot water option economically attractive for homes that have not installed a solar PV but need to replace their hot water system.

Check out the price of a solar hot water system for your home by clicking here.