A glacier, known as the Trotting Glacier, melts more water in a day than NY City uses in a year and has receded 9 miles in 5 years. Proof can be found in the ice core records that provide CO2 and temperature levels as long ago as 650,000 years. Each fume from a smoke stack and combustion engine output contributes to the seventy million tons of CO2 that people release into the air every day. Reducing our CO2 levels is the only option for lowering the effect of releasing CO2 into our atmosphere.

About one third of a family’s energy budget is used for heating water for normal use.

The utility companies supply the gas or electricity to heat the water for baths, showers, washing clothing, and many other things. But the resources utilized in providing electricity and gas are non-renewable, and as more natural resources are consumed they are increasingly more difficult to find. This makes it hard for the typical household client with electric and water bills that keep on increasing at very high figures. As carbon-based fuels become more rare and difficult to extract, utility bills will continue to increase. For almost one hundred years, a solar panel has been used to heat water.

Solar electricity water heating is presumably the simplest application of solar energy that we have today. It is just a method of using the thermal rays from the sun and putting them in the water.

The solar panel is called the flat plate collector and batch collector systems. Flat plate collectors are just a chain of pipes that are positioned in an area of the house where they have access to direct daylight (often a southern exposure on the roof). Water is pushed through the pipes and heated by the warmth of the sun, which is different from the chain of chemical reaction. The pipes are constructed so that they can absorb most of the sun's heat.

A solar panel batch collector system is a water tank which has been modified to obtain the most from the sun's energy. Surfaces of black that absorb thermal energy are included. Close to the home, and in an area that receives a lot of direct sunlight, is where the tank is located. It is possible for the water obtained from either of these systems to be utilized in the house's regular plumbing system, for showers, dishwashing, cooking and watering the garden. Buying and installing each system will cost a lot of money but the upkeep cost is low and the system will last anywhere from ten to twenty-five years.

It could take 5 to 7 years for you to recoup your money on purchase and installation, depending upon the amount of hot water you use and how effective your house is in storing hot water. You would also be doing your part in the reduction of the amount of greenhouse gases sent into the atmosphere. Just to mention a few of the advantages and disadvantages of solar power.