A report has shown that the solar water heating is almost untapped and it could reduce a quarter of the greenhouse gas emissions produced by households and would be a significant environmental measure. The greenhouse gas emission solar water heating that would reduce is equivalent to the emissions of 4 million cars, based on the report.The report used Govenment figures and was written for Soltrac, a West Country company, by Nick Radford, a former parlamentary researcher. He stated that the solar water heating could provide 60 to 70 percent of a household’s hot water needs and could help on two sides, by reducing both the costs by £232 a year and the carbon dioxide emissions by 665kg a year.

Unfortunately the technology isn’t currently used by many households, being only found on 0.004 percent of them, this meaning around 100,000. The tubes or panels cost from £2,500 to £4,000 and the Government grants £400 for this program, so the payback time will be of about 10 years.

Citing from the report: “In spite of good intentions and headline targets, the Government is failing to deliver a system that gives incentive to the domestic and commercial consumer to take one of the simple steps in going green. Instead the industry is being stifled by overbearing measures: the consumer is being disillusioned and the environment continues to bear the cost of unnecessary emissions.”

Basing on the Department for Business Enterprise & Regulatory Reform, the energy produced from renewable sources has doubled in the last two years, reaching about 5 percent and by 2015 it should reach up to 15 percent.

via EcoGeek