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Solar water heaters are expensive, complicated, fragile, and generally immobile.

Solar panels and heating elements are cheap, simple and easily replaceable.

A solar water heater is just a black box with a tube running through it. Many houses here have one, because they're much cheaper than PV panels to generate similar kW heat. But a sibling comment pointed out they want to go up to 900 °K, you can't do that with those, of course.

I think in most places the economics have shifted to PV now.

Despite the simplicity of a solar water heater the even greater simplicity is often part of the argument for PV being better, but the higher grade of energy that you only optionally have to use for heat and relative price changes are the key driver

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