Let's say that in that twenty years the PV panels have paid for themselves and start to save me money. Now imagine I'd taken the $15K that the system cost and instead invested it in a good mutual fund for twenty years.
It doesn't make a lot of financial sense right now.
Even from an environmental perspective, it takes some five years of operation before the PV panels have generated more power than they took to make in the first place. I don't know what the figures are on the TrendSetter system, but I believe they should be much less.
I'm not sure you're quite understanding what the TrendSetter system does. It uses thermal energy from the sun to heat water for direct use or radiant heating. Water is then heated further if necessary using an on-demand system, which is typically gas powered.
However, if the solar collectors and tank only provide warm water to the on-demand system (say during short days in the winter), it still requires less energy to heat it to the desired temperature. As Norm put it, "a BTU is a BTU."
And again, the full system doesn't just heat water, it heats your whole house, replacing any other heating system. It can also heat hot tubs and swimming pools.
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