Solar Water Heating is the ‘Red-headed Stepchild,’ but Metering Returns it to Good Favor

The lack of meters for solar water heating technology hinders the advancement and legitimacy of the technology. Less than fifteen firms worldwide make performance meters suitable to residential solar water heating systems (SWH). The price of a residential BTU meter relative to total system cost is too expensive: sometimes more than 10%. The market is expanding for affordable meters, since the largest global growth in SWH installations is expected in the residential sector between now and 2025. To be useful, these meters must report real-time data to the Cloud and provide a user-friendly Energy Dashboard. Interviews with 26 utility executives and manufacturers in North America identified common concerns. Unmetered residential systems fail to:i) assure long-term SWH system functionality;ii) participate in the Renewable Energy Credit, CO2 reduction, or pay-for-performance markets;iii) verify that public subsidies or rebates for SWH are well-spent;iv) use “Big Data” to innovate design or develop competitive advantage;v) provide the information key to “bragging rights,” which compel pride in ownership.Though cheap natural gas is the primary reason the US market lags that of the world, there is no reason why distributors and installers should not professionalize their offerings with meter technology. A low cost, accurate, Cloud-tied, BTU meter increases business for installers and benefits the entire value chain.