I have to be honest. When I was given the assignment to write about solar water heaters, my first reaction was, “yawn.” But, by the time I was done with the assignment, I was emailing my boyfriend to tell him that we’re totally putting in a solar water heater whenever we finally buy a house. And, here’s why I got excited. Solar water heaters offer tons of incentive to purchase:

• Not that expensive. In fact, the government will practically pay you to install one.
• Money savers. The prospect of paying essentially nothing to heat the water in my home is pretty thrilling, even if we weren’t in a recession.
• Environmentally friendly. So many things are touted as “environmentally friendly” these days that the phrase has lost some of its clout. So, it’s refreshing to think that concrete action you can take — sticking this particular chunk of metal and glass on your roof — can have a real, measurable impact on the environment. Your carbon dioxide output from heating water? Zero. That’s easy to wrap your mind around.
• Old school and futuristic at the same time. Is there anything less complicated than heating water with the sun? In some ways, that’s the stuff of cavemen, and yet it feels totally Jetsons. And, I’ve always wanted to live in the Jetsons’ house.

So, I’m totally sold on the solar water heater. Now if I only had that house…