Solar hot water

It is a plumbing job, not an electrical one

Solar hot water moves water and heat, so the trade that owns it is plumbing. People often ring an electrician first and get sent back. A Certifying Plumber is who you want.

Flat panel or evacuated tube

Flat panels are the older and simpler option, they sit lower on the roof and they cope well with the sort of sun Hawke's Bay gets through summer. Evacuated tubes perform better in cold and diffuse light, and individual tubes can be replaced if one fails. Tubes cost more. Neither is automatically right, and the roof usually decides more than the brochure does.

How it works with your existing cylinder

In most cases solar works with the cylinder you already have rather than replacing it. Panels or tubes on the roof heat the water, and your existing element or gas booster covers the days the sun does not. You are not throwing out a working cylinder to do this.

Whether that is possible on your house depends on the cylinder type and its age, which is something we can tell you on site. A cylinder near the end of its life is worth replacing at the same time rather than doing the work twice.

What the roof needs

North facing is best, and east or west will still work with a bit less output. Shading is the thing that quietly ruins performance, so a tree that is fine now and large in five years is worth mentioning. The roof also has to carry the weight and the fixings have to suit the cladding, which matters more on older Hawke's Bay roofs.

What to expect from it

Solar carries a meaningful share of household hot water over a Hawke's Bay year, more in summer and less through winter, with the booster covering the difference. We will be straight with you about what the roof orientation and shading on your particular house mean rather than quoting a brochure figure.

Repairs on existing systems

Plenty of Hawke's Bay houses have solar hot water installed years ago that has stopped performing. Often it is the pump, the controller, or the transfer fluid rather than the panels. Transfer fluid degrades over time and it is a service item, not a failure. Worth diagnosing before assuming the whole thing needs replacing.

Solar hot water is not solar power

Solar power panels make electricity and that is an electrician's job. Solar hot water panels heat water, which is plumbing, and that is ours. If someone quoted you for one and you wanted the other, that is usually where the confusion started.