This is a concept I never fully understood. My father even sold all kinds of renewables for ~5 years until 2016, and he just said “Thermal just isn’t worth it” but never really explained how or why. And even now when all Europe is under a strong pressure into deciding how to heat our homes this winter, it seems that no one is still considering thermal solar as a solution.
Heck some governments even decided that it was better to propose PV + Heat Pumps instead of Solar heating
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Why?
In: 4
Thermal solar heats mostly during summer, and not during winter when you need it. It doesn’t work as your only heat source, so if you do it, you also have to pay for a second device to heat your water. With PV+Heatpump you can simply buy grid electricity.
The only case where it makes a lot of sense is heating pool water, because that’s a use case where you need heat in the summer.
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