Does anyone here have a solar energy system?

[customerserviceguy]

12. Thirty years ago

I had a solar hot water heater. Got a loan from my utility, and a grant from the Bonneville Power Administration (for sending in a postcard a month with statistics off of a monitoring device) that paid for the whole thing. Also, got a 40% Carter energy tax credit for the whole thing, even the part paid for by the Federal grant.

And this was in Washington state, and I'm talking the "wet" side. We had cloudy weather for a large part of the time, and the thing provided zero benefit from about mid-October to mid-April. But in the summers, hoo boy, there was so much hot water, that I was glad they installed a mixing valve to add cold water to the hot water line, so that the temp wouldn't get above 120 degrees (didn't want the kids to scald themselves with boiling water). It worked very well, and the only thing that went wrong with it was that it was attached to the house that the ex got in the divorce. Oh, well.

Durability? Well, of course, I haven't set foot in that house in over twenty years, but Google Earth still shows the panels on the roof, which I figure probably has been replaced already. The builder used some really cheap materials, it wouldn't surprise me if the composition shingles needed replacing, and if the solar water heater was toast, it would have been removed by now.