solar hot water?

[SquashNut]

what would it take to run a standard hot water heater with solar panels?

[Ky-Jeeper]

Have you checked in on hot water solar panels? I believe the payback is sooner. Someone here will have your answer. They may need to know your heater specs like amps, watts, and gal.

[wy_white_wolf]

Way more than you'd want to spend.

http://www.blachlylane.coop/customer_service/tips.php

They claim a 500kwh monthly is Average foe an electric water heater for a family of three.

So 500kwh / 30 days = 16.7kwh daily load

Working in off-grid losses and poor winter insolation for Idaho that could easily come to a 20kw array and a 80kwh battery bank.

WWW

[Energy Rebel]

Originally Posted by SquashNut

what would it take to run a standard hot water heater with solar panels?

As you probably figured, the answer varies, according to use.
The standard figure is 5,000 watts for a water heater. This from the NEC and by multiplying amps x volts.
240v x 20 amps (approx) = 4800 watts.

Now, do you need to run that 24/7?
I put a timer on mine to run about 6 hours a day at several intervals, works good for us.

If you did the same, you might get by with a 5-6,000watt array.
As noted, a passive system maybe supplemented with PV might be better and cheaper.