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Solar hot water

Solar hot water uses panels on your roof to heat water directly from the sun, with a booster for cloudy days. On the right roof, it can supply much of your hot water for free.

Find local installers How it works

A common sign

“We get so much sun. Why are we still paying to heat water?”

With a sunny, north facing roof, solar hot water is worth comparing with a heat pump. The right choice depends on your roof and how you use hot water.

About solar hot water

Let the sun heat your water.

Collectors on the roof absorb heat from the sun and pass it to water stored in a tank. When the sun isn’t strong enough, a booster, usually electric, tops the water up so you never run out.

It’s a different product from a heat pump. Solar hot water does best on an unshaded, north facing roof in a sunny climate, while a heat pump works almost anywhere. Some homes are better suited to one than the other, so it’s worth asking for both.

Helps with

High hot water running costs

Helps with

Homes with a sunny, unshaded roof

Helps with

Replacing an old electric or gas system

Worth knowing

Shade matters. Trees or a neighbour’s second storey can cut what the collectors collect, so ask the installer to check your roof across the seasons.

Not sure where to start?

Stop guessing, start saving: find your home’s energy score.

Don’t waste money on upgrades you don’t need. A professional home energy assessment shows where your house loses heat and power, so your budget goes where it makes the biggest difference.

Find an assessor near me

Solar hot water installers

Find solar hot water installers near you.

A few of the 425 listed across Australia

Work by All Eastern Plumbing.

All Eastern Plumbing

4.9 373 Google reviews

Heat pump hot water systemsSolar hot water

Serves Drouin and surrounding suburbs | Based in Drouin

Work by Raldex Plumbing.

Raldex Plumbing

4.8 81 Google reviews

Heat pump hot water systemsSolar hot water

Serves Watsonia and surrounding suburbs | Based in Watsonia

Work by SGT Plumbing.

SGT Plumbing

Heat pump hot water systemsSolar hot water

Serves Pearcedale and surrounding suburbs | Based in Pearcedale

A timber clad coastal home with solar panels on a curved roof, behind sand dunes and coastal heath.

Progressive Plumbing Group

5.0 44 Google reviews

Heat pump hot water systemsSolar hot waterGas abolishment and disconnection

Serves Ringwood and surrounding suburbs | Based in Ringwood

A sage green weatherboard cottage with a picket fence and solar panels, frost on the lawn.

Endpoint Plumbing

4.9 349 Google reviews

Heat pump hot water systemsSolar hot waterGas abolishment and disconnection

Serves Thomastown and surrounding suburbs | Based in Thomastown

More in gas to electric

Other upgrades in this category.

A white heat pump hot water unit on a concrete plinth against the dark wall of a modern home at golden hour, its pipes running into the wall.

Heat pump hot water systems

A heat pump uses a fraction of the electricity of an old electric tank, and it is the usual first swap when a gas system fails.

An air-to-water heat pump outdoor unit with black insulated pipes on a concrete pad beside the curved rendered wall of a modern home, native garden around it and a living room through the glass doors.

Hydronic heating

Heats the water in your radiators or heated slab with an electric heat pump instead of a gas boiler. The pipes and radiators can often stay, though not always, so ask.

A woman crouching at the edge of a backyard pool to test the water, with a pool heat pump beside the pool equipment and solar panels on the roof behind.

Pool heating

Warms the pool with an electric heat pump or solar collectors on the roof instead of gas. Pairs well with rooftop solar, and a pool cover keeps the heat in.

A technician kneeling beside a pool filter, connecting a new energy efficient pool pump on the equipment pad.

Energy efficient pool pumps

Replaces an old single speed pump with a variable speed one that runs slower for longer, so keeping the water clean takes less power.

A black glass induction cooktop set into a pale stone island, a pan of vegetables cooking on one zone, the open plan kitchen lit by the setting sun.

Induction cooktop installation

Faster than gas, and it takes the last flame out of the kitchen. Usually needs its own circuit run from the switchboard.

A white split system air conditioner above the bed in a calm bedroom with a timber headboard wall and floor-to-ceiling glass onto bushland at sunset.

Split system air conditioning

One unit for one room, or several heads off one outdoor box. The cheapest way to heat and cool the rooms you actually use.

A living room in golden evening light with slim ducted air vents in the ceiling, a cream sofa, a timber coffee table and tall glass doors onto a garden and gum trees at sunset.

Ducted reverse cycle heating and cooling

Ducted through the whole house. The vents from a ducted gas furnace can often be reused, though not always, so ask before you count on it.

A technician in a navy polo on a step ladder, holding the filter she has taken out of a split system air conditioner in a bright living room.

Air conditioning servicing

A filter clean and a gas check keeps a system running at the efficiency it was sold at. Cheap next to replacing it early.

An electrician in safety glasses kneeling at a new switchboard in a garage, a home battery on the wall beside it and low sun through the open door.

Switchboard upgrades

An older board often cannot take an induction cooktop, a heat pump and a charger at once. This is the job that unblocks the rest.

A gasfitter in khaki workwear and an orange hi-vis vest kneeling at the pale brick wall of a modern home, undoing the fittings on the gas meter, with his tool bag on the path beside him.

Gas abolishment and disconnection

The last step. Once every gas appliance is gone, removing the meter is what actually ends the daily supply charge.

Before you choose an installer

See our guides on switching from gas to electric.

All electric Getting off gas, one appliance at a time The sequence that avoids paying two connection fees and a second electrician visit, and what the gas disconnection really involves.

Hot water Your hot water just died. What now? What to do today, what your options are, and why heat pump hot water is worth ten minutes before you replace like for like.

Heating The ducted gas heater has finally gone Repair it, replace it or switch to reverse cycle? What the options really cost, and what your existing ductwork means for the decision.

Related goal

Hot water is one piece of a lower bill.

Solar, insulation and the right heating all add up. See the upgrades that do the most to bring your power bills down.

Lower my power bills See all gas to electric upgrades