Socio-Economic Constraints on the Design of Solar Domestic Hot-Water Systems for India

Energy consumption for domestic hot water (DHW) is studied for various economic income classes in India and placed in the context of India's energy consumption. The amount of conventional energy being used for DHW that could be replaced by Solar DHW equipment is estimated. The percentage of households using DHW is seen to be nearly constant at 70% across all income classes. It is found that, independently of the fuel mix, the cost of DHW per liter remains the same. Limits on prices of practical DHW equipment for wide-scale use in India are obtained by using the market value of energy spent on DHW.