Frustrating experience choosing solar water heater..

[ganeshncm]

It has been a very frustrating experience for me, choosing solar water heater. It is 3 weeks now and still not able to make a decision

I spoke with dealers of Solarizer, Supreme, Bosch, Racold and Anu

Too many people are having issues with Glass Collector, hence going with flat plate copper collector

Supreme - Challenges (Only one year warranty for tank and collector) . When asked for invoice, it hardly says anything, doesn't even say that they will provide 2 collectors for 200 Liters. They whatsapp the specifications separately, which is very shady. Competitor shows me photos of leaking tanks within 2 months of purchase, collectors have holes (due to less copper and more aluminum used etc) . Costs less than Solarizer

Solarizer - Very transparent about the specs, but they have replaced a lot of components with aluminum instead of copper. Costs 25% more than Supreme (Supreme supposedly has more copper). Competitor shows photos of failed installations, within a month

Bosch - Product seems to be good, but people complaining of no support.

Racold - Seems to be of better quality, but costs nearly 80% more than Supreme. Call center absolutely useless. Asked them to connect to a dealer nearly 5 times, and they didn't do at all. Wondering how their support will be.

Anu - Seems better of the lot, transparent specs, but lot of negative reviews on the net about their support and failures. Costs similar to solarizer.

With exit of Tata BP solar, manufacturers have significantly reduced the quality and support of their products (also due to increasing metal prices). Such a sad state for of affairs that will send atma nirbhar to a toss..

[Sandeepk09]

Hi Ganesh,

I have been using Supreme tubular solar water heater more than 4 years I didn't receive any complaints till now. This was as cheap as 19k when I took it in year 2017. Hopefully this reply helps you.

[ganeshncm]

Thank you Sandeep..helps a lot..

Hi Ganesh,

I have been using Supreme tubular solar water heater more than 4 years I didn't receive any complaints till now. This was as cheap as 19k when I took it in year 2017. Hopefully this reply helps you.

[msn1270]

Have you reviewed Orb Energy ?. They're one of the leading export oriented Manufacturer into solar based products.

[Visualizer]

What is the current Quote of various brands of Solar water heater.

I got one quote from a vendor for Solar water heater + 2KW Heat pump ( equivalent to 8 KW heat output from traditional geyser) with common pressurized storage tank.
This will eliminate the need of Individual geysers ( 5 bathroom so 10KW total) and reduce the peak electrical load from 10KW to 2KW reducing the expense and BESCOM connection charges as well.

In this quote
1. Solar water heater 300 Liter - 79K
2. Airsource Heat pump water heater ( 2KW) : 86K
3. Mixing pressurized tank 500 L : 46K

Pressurised accessories , Mounting bracket , Voltage stabilizer etc 10K

With GST ( 5% on solar and 9% on heatpump and other things) the total quote is 2.51 L

Now it looks too much to me and I don't need 500 Liter tank is required , as dont have a very large family and all bathrooms are not going to be used simultaneously so may be 200 L should be good enough given that normal geyser is 25L and 25 x 5 = 125 Liter is all I will get if I don't go by centralized heating.
Any suggestions on the size of storage tank ?

also is this cost of Solar water heater at 79300/- looks justified or is excessive ?

The reason of insistence on heatpump solar hybrid system

1. want to eliminate resistance based heaters from bathrooms and reduce electrical load
2. On the roof due to tall neighboring building sun is available in limited quantity so heatpump looks more feasible then just solar.
3. Instead of 2 parallel systems or connecting in series both solar and heat-pump feeding to same storage tank
would be more efficient my theory is that while sun is available Heat pump will remain inactive and will be used
only in shady conditions.

[rjblr]

Let me start with the fact that I have limited understanding of this entire system. My input is limited to investment and return.
I think saving on electricity may not be enough to justify an investment of 2.5L for a water heating system. Assuming you get a solar system along with geysers setup for 1L, you are spending 1.5L more on this setup with heat pump.

Even with a saving of 2k/month on electricity, it would take 6 years to recover additional 1.5L of upfront investment. I would assume that the equipment may need maintenance after 6 years.

Convenience of having entire heating system on rooftop and a clean bathroom seems to be a plus.

[Visualizer]

Thanks a lot for cost recovery perspective.
As the direct sunlight on roof is only half day I am thinking of skipping the solar and just have heatpump

Suppose if I go for Solar and 5 geysers assuming each geyser to be 8 to 10K rs it qill cost around 1 lakh.
if I go only fot heatpump + 250 liter pressurized storage roughly in 1 - 1.5 L I can have centralized hot water with less electricity consumption.

[Visualizer]

Hi
What is the difference between pressured and non pressured solar water heater ?

The first quote which I provided above was 79300/- for 300 liter pressurised solar water heater now from same vendor I am getting a quote of 24762/- for non pressured 250liter water heater with inner tank GI epoxy coated and 50mm PUFF insulation.

[maheshv]

I have been using solarizer ultra (for borewell water), it's been 7 - 8 years only, only this year I had to pay 1000 for adding glycol, otherwise it has been zero maintenance. if there is no kaveri water connection at your place go for soloarizer hardwater model. I went for it after lot of research, they gave very good service during installation, even now this year when I called, they promptly sent their person to put the glycol

[ganeshncm]

Oops .. missed it, thank you.. went with Anu.. very good quality and support

Have you reviewed Orb Energy ?. They're one of the leading export oriented Manufacturer into solar based products.