This is part two of a series of post about my solar hot water system. Make sure to follow along! I built my house in 2012 (five years ago as of this writing). It is a small, super insulated home. The first few months we lived in the home we had only an electric water heater, 50-gallon tank style. It worked great. But, there was one final box to check before being 100% done with the build. I needed a sign off by a HERS rater. After paying this guy almost a grand he faile

This is part one of a series of post about my solar hot water system. Make sure to follow along! I built a large water tank in my crawlspace under my home. This is a wood-framed and insulated tank connected to a solar system for heating water. The crawlspace under my house is fully inside the thermal envelope. There is an R-26 of foam board insulation at the ground level, and no insulation in the joists. So, the crawlspace is always within a few degrees of the living space