Solar HWS

This forum has been a great help for me, so I thought I might contribute as well.

Been doing research on solar HWS lately for my extension, and have found that by far the most efficient and cost effective ones are those made by Chromagen. I got this from the Sustainability Victoria website sifting through REC rebates for hot water systems. For my needs (2 panels, 300L tank + instant gas boost) the system costs ~$4500, but will get $1500 back from government and plus 40 REC points ~$1000. Compare this with Edwards ~$7000 and not as much rebate and RECs, or Rinnai ~$5500, it seems to be the pick of the crop.

Oh, I'm not in anyway pushing Chromagen products, just wanting to share my findings.

Gday Supa007 I have just installed a Quantum Heat Pump type 270 ltr unit and from all reports these units are suppose to be the most energy efficient and cheapest to run on the market at the moment I am not sure i have not got the first bill yet! these units do not have a booster element in them unlike some brands on the market like rheem and can operate in temperatures below -10 deg the unit i have installed is on off peak 2 also,meaning cheaper hr rates so it is has supply to it periodically for around 15 hours per day unlike other models which also require a mininum of 18 hours per day putting it on either off peak 1 or general rate supply being more expensive again it cost me around the 3,200 mark i got a $840 dollar rebate from the supplier Quantum just in regards to the government rebate in NSW it is $1,000 and you only qualify for that if your combined income is less than $100k! I was seriously looking into solar panels and the Rheem agent talked me out of it saying the heat pump units were the most effective and cost efficient way of hot water production the only reason i did not go with the rheem unit was that it had a back up element which led me to question its quality and technology compared to the quantum units that do not require one!