There are many houses in my neighborhood with lookout windows. We purchased our lot before selecting a builder, but the person who showed us the lot told us we would be able to build a house with lookout windows. When we started talking to builders, it became clear that lookout windows were not an option. I was very disappointed that our windows would all be below grade with window wells, but the lot was still great for us. We ended up with larger than standard windows - 20" instead of 16"??? I can't remember exactly. We also added a larger egress window so that we can add a bedroom when we finish our basement. Lookout windows are definitely more desirable. I would expect some type of compensation if you had agreed to that in the plans. However, for us it was certainly not a deal breaker. I hope you can find a resolution.

I installed it all and plumbed it myself - Not a really difficult job . . . . maybe 3 on a scale of 5 The collector panel was $1K, the tanks were $600 for the pair, the circulator pump was $100, the differential controller was $200 and about another $300 for copper piping, valves, flowmeter and an analog temp guage. $2200 for the total system, give or take $100. We had no hot water heater to begin with, so we would have had to spend $300 anyway, so take away the $300 and the $400 in Tax rebates and the system actually cost us $1500 - I got $300 off my federal income tax and another $100 from the state My 'break even point' is about 3 to 4 years - It would be higher if I had paid another $1500 to $2K for a professional installation We're remodeling an old farmhouse, so we've never lived here with anything but the solar heat but the tag on the side of one of the water heaters says it costs $400 per year to run - It's a very high efficiency unit with 3 inches of polyfoam insulation, so a lesser water heater would cost more to operate. $500 to $600 per year is probably an average cost for domestic water heating per year for a family of four I REALLY don't understand why there isn't a larger push from the government on solar water heating. Unlike solar electric, or hybrid cars, this technology is pretty well perfected right now and the payback is much shorter than for just about any other 'green' energy source. It can be used in most places in the United States. The outside temp isn't a big factor in how well it works . . . . it depends more on how many sunny days you have If more houses had solar domestic hot water systems, we could make a huge dent in the total energy use of the country and just think of how much less fossil fuel we would consume Don

The disadvantage of tankless is that you may not have enough hot water to supply multiple simultaneous uses (running 3 showers at a time, for example). So what I'm thinking is a tankless and a tank heater feeding into a mixing valve such as a Watts LFMMV. Set the tankless to deliver 110F and the tank to deliver 120F and set the mixing valve to supply 110F. Then under normal conditions the the mixing valve calls for "cold water" of 110F from the tankless but if the tankless can't keep up and falls below 110F then the mixing valve mixes in hot water from the tank to maintain the 110F. Would this work?

We went with a 4 gal. Bosch Ariston GL4S Electric Mini-Tank Water Heater, which is close to 2 years old at this point. https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B0006GVO1C/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1 It needs an emergency drain. Ours is pushed through the exterior wall. It's the pipe to the left of the hose bib: This is one of my favorite things in the new kitchen. Yes, it's a bit of a space hog, but I don't regret losing the under sink storage a bit. You know all the times you just need to wash your hands or that one little thing you're using? Or wash the raw meat off your hands and cutting board so you can do the next thing? You need hot water, but don't want to wait 60-180 seconds for the warm water to show up? This is the answer. We hooked ours into the hot water line. It provides hot water until the hot water from the tank in the garage shows up, which only happens when I have pots and pans to wash. Meanwhile, I can just wash my hands without a major production. I was recently using DD's kitchen making chicken nuggets for the kids' dinner and was reminded how much I love this water heater at my house. I had raw chicken, raw egg, flour, and Panko crumbs all stuck to my fingers and I needed to get a move on. I'm pretty sure it took 3 minutes standing there watching the water run down the drain waiting for warm water to show up, wondering, "Have I got the handle pushed the right way for hot? Maybe cold is to the back. Maybe I should flip it the other way." Five minutes later when I needed hot water again - well, I settled for cold. How often do you settle for cold?