Title of the book

SOLAR WATER HEATERS IN INDIA

- PROBLEMS AND PROSPECTS

PREFACE
The twenty first century world requires significant increases in energy supplies to meet the
growing aspiration and ambitions of the mankind. The energy has become a significant element
in economic development and peoples standard of living. With the ever increasing sophistication
in the peoples life style the dependence on energy is becoming imperative. Even though
conventional energy sources have been contributing very significantly in meeting the energy
demands, it cannot and will not cater to growing energy demands because of the collateral
damage it is inflicting on the global ecology and also the growing shortage and high cost of their
availability. In this context there is only one way that is renewable energy which can rescue the
mankind from the forthcoming energy crunch. Even for the developing countries also these
renewable energy sources are very much accessible, if they can develop relevant technologies.
Among the many renewable energy sources that are available, solar energy is accessible to many
countries. There is no doubt that solar energy source is going to be depleting. There will be some
constraints for other renewable sources, for wind energy sufficient wind should be there and we
cannot generate wind energy where wind flow is not sufficient. There are safety and security
problems involved with respect to the usage of nuclear energy. There are absolutely no
ecological issues in using the renewable energy sources. These sources are clean, green and
sustainable also. So it is high time that policy makers and technologists should engage in rapid
development of these renewable energy technologies so that the global growth and development
will not be getting effected.
Among the many solar applications, solar water heaters require a simple technology to convert
the solar power to thermal power which is used to heat the water. In our country majority of the
people are using electric heaters to meet the hot water requirement during the winter season.
Solar water heaters can effectively replace the conventional water heaters with only one time
investment. So in this context the present book presents the problems and prospects of using
solar water heaters. In this book opinion of the existing users of solar water heaters are presented.
It also has investigated the common problems faced by them and the suggestions to overcome
those problems were presented. The government policy towards the solar energy in general and
solar water heaters in particular has also been discussed with emphasis on modifications required
in the existing policy to encourage the usage of solar water heaters in future.