If your business uses a significant amount of hot water then solar thermal water heating could help you save a large amount of money. In addition to the money you will save by displacing some of your hot water heating requirements with solar water heating, there are currently a few government programs that will allow you to save even more money on the installed cost of the system.

The federal EcoEnergy initiative will allow you to save 25% of the installed cost of the system. Additionally, the provincial government is currently matching the federal incentive of 25%, meaning that you will save 50% of the installed cost of the system. As well, there is PST rebate program for solar energy systems which will amount to about 3 or 4% of the installed cost. Finally, the federal government has implemented a temporary accelerated capital cost allowance (CCA) for investments by business in energy saving equipment to 50% per annum. This means you can write off 50% of the installed cost of the system on your taxes in the first year. Then, you can write off 50% of the remaining amount, or 25% of the original investment, in the second year. And so on. All of these factors combined result in an incredible opportunity for your business to save money on a renewable heating system in addition to the money saved from the reduction in non-renewable fuel use.

Please consider the following scenario:

Imagine a business that uses 2400 gallons of hot water per day (perhaps a commercial car wash). This would require about 35 cubic metres of natural gas, assuming the water heating appliance was 80% efficient. A 24 collector solar thermal system could supply half of the required hot water, averaged over the entire year, and result in an uninvested savings of over $80,000 over the lifetime of the system! (This is based on the estimated increase in the price of natural gas by the Conference Board of Canada of 6.2% over the next 4 years.) This represents a 7% return on investment.

If the annual savings from this system were re-invested at 4% per annum, the total return on the system after 20 years would be a whopping $103,000!

An equally impressive figure is that this system would displace over 200 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions over its lifetime.

If you would like to play with the numbers yourself for your particular hot water use scenario, please download this spreadsheet and experiment. Keep in mind the numbers in the spreadsheet are estimates only, but they should give you a fairly good idea of what to expect.