By Joshua Freeman

More people are looking at energy alternatives with a mind to ­reducing costs.

With that in mind, Post Carbon London — a group focused on helping Londoners act on issues surrounding peak oil and global warming — is offering a series of free work shops to provide the public with information about installing solar water heating.

"In Ontario, you could get about 68 per cent of all your hot water needs for the year from the sun," says Shane ONeill, one of the group's founders. "In China, most of the hot water they obtain is from solar power. In Israel it's almost 100 per cent, (and) California is moving up as well."

The workshops, which start April 14, run once a month in May, June and October. Free to attend, they'll feature expert guest speakers, demonstrations, panel discussions and comments from professionals who work with solar thermal power technologies. A special tour to the Waterloo Region Green ­Living and Technical Fair April 16 will also allow people to get a view of a retrofitted building.

"Anyone can google solar ­thermal on the Internet, but we find people get confused by it," ONeil says, explaining the need for the workshop. "There are different types of systems."

He adds there are all kinds of other questions that aren't answered online either.

Not to be confused with solar electricity, solar thermal systems heat water using the sun's rays.

"We call it solar irradation," ONeill says.

The sun's rays are used to heat up ­glycol, which in turn heats water in a tank.

"The biggest problem we have ­heating water with sunlight is that it trends to overheat rather than not heat at all," ONeill says.

He says it generally costs around $6,000 to set up such a system. ­However, government subsidies reduce the homeowner's cost to about $3,500.

Though he concedes one has to have a 'big picture attitude' to get on board at the moment, he says the systems will become more practical as energy costs continue to rise.

For more info, visit www.postcarbonlondon.ca or call 519-645-2845.

joshua.freeman@sunmedia.ca

www.thelondoner.ca/