This user’s handbook on Solar Water Heaters by the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) in collaboration with the UNDP/UNEP/GEF Global Solar Water Heating Market Transformation Strengthening Initiative attempts to transform the solar water heating market in India. 

The purpose of this hand book is to provide guidance to customers to look at various aspects while selecting a solar water heater for their hot water requirements and take an informed decision while purchasing a solar water heating system. 

The climate of India varies from extremes to moderate due to its large geographic size and varied topography. Solar water heating system can be a suitable alternative to meet the growing hot water demand requirement in the country without exerting further demand pressure on electricity generation capacity in the country.

However, in quite a number of cases solar water heaters had failed to earn appreciation of the users due to sub-optimal design, inferior product quality, mismatch of technology with environment and water quality and bad installation practices.

The book contains the following chapters to help the readers with -

• The general technical specifications a user should look at while selecting a solar water heating system;
• Choice of technology for a particular application keeping in mind the environmental conditions and hot water applications;
• Determine size of the water heating system for different residential and commercial applications. It also provides a simple mathematical model to decide the approximate size of the solar heating system in residential application;
• Need to look at the various economic factors while evaluating the cost of solar water heating systems;
• Different aspects the users need to look at while having the solar water heating systems installed;
• Regular and periodic maintenance and the trouble shooting methods;
• Frequently asked questions (FAQ);
• Principles of solar water heating systems;
• Successful illustrations of solar water heating systems in residential, commercial and industrial applications in India.

It helps provide adequate information to the solar water heater users to help in selecting the right technology and product for their applications. It will be useful to the solar water heater users in procuring the systems and also in getting optimum results from these systems.

Download the handbook here: