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Green Collar Careers - Solar Heating Design

The objective of this module is to teach you how to design a complete solar hot water heating system.  Now that you have a basic understanding of Solar Energy, Solar Collectors, and Solar Water Heating you should be ready to begin designing a system for installation. 

Even better we'll recommend that you use your own home as the planning subject.  By the end of the this Module you should be fully competent to evaluate, design, and contract the installation of a solar hot water heating system along with identifying the all the financial benefits in the form of tax incentives and utility rebates.

There are 10 key topics that we’ll cover:

401 – Solar Heat Overview
402 - Recommended System Configuration
403 - Site Survey
404 - SRCC Compliance Documents
405 - System Specifications
406 - Bill of Materials
407 - System Installation
408 - Solar Heating Incentives
409 - Document Package
410 – Near Future Products

Solar Water Heater systems are a natural extension to the Home Energy Audit business model and should be considered as the first option for renewable energy.

By beginning with a Home Energy Audit you’ll be able to earn an income during the audit and while you’re on the premises have the opportunity to appraise the value for a Solar Water Heating system.

Typical component costs for a Solar Water Heating system including installer related materials (IRM) is about $5200 and takes about 20 hours of labor to install; qualified subcontractor installations generally cost under $700.

Typical selling prices for these systems are about $8000 which includes a new water heater.  The IRS will provide a 30% tax credit of $2400 towards the system dropping the homeowner cost to $5600.  In most states there are additional incentives ranging from utility awards (up to 10% or $800) and/or state income tax credits.

The value proposition to the homeowner without any state or utility incentives: