Sustainable Building Forum

I saw something on Wikipedia about using solar power to heat water by just having it up in pipes on the roof. They had a picture of a laundromat or something that did it. It looked like an easy first project for someone wanting to get started in renewable energy. Does anyone know how hot the water generally gets? I live in maryland... so perhaps not that hot during the overcast months.

I personally don't trust wikipedia for information, but I would also be very interested in a cheaper and more earth friendly way to get hot water than what we currently have. Right now my house uses oil to make hot water and when we run out of oil not only do we lose our heat, but also our hot water. I live in NY State, which is not exactly sunny, but on clear days the sun hits my house pretty well.
Another innovation in getting hot water that my husband has talked about is that you can burn wood or paper to heat your hot water but I am not sure what this technology is called. Wouldn't it be wonderful to get free hot water from your old newspapers and junk mail?
If anyone can provide links to some useful information abot earth friendly hot water heating, I'd really appreciate it.

Burningwood or paper is the worst thing that you could do fro the environment. Both wood and newspaper have high carbon content. Burning them would mean releasing the carbon in the atmosphere and contributing to the global warming. If you want to be green try to minimise your use of hot water. Use solar panels if you can afford it. Some people use aluminium drums taht are painted black on the outside. Pace them somehwere relatively high and fit a tap or at the bottom to use the gravity for water flow. On a sunny day, you will have plenty of hot water for a afternoon and evening needs. Not a vey convenient method but much better than burning wood and newspapers which could also be potential fire dangers.

Bummer I live in an apt complex.  But I have lived in a house before. This would be an economical way to heat the water without using so much electricity.  Although I'm not so sure how good it would work in places that it snows.

We rent also. Once we buy our first home, I will definitely want to put in solar panels to cut heating costs.