§16§In India, out of total electricity consumed in domestic sector nearly 25 % is consumed for hot water, which is approximately 5.5% of total electricity consumption in India. Solar water heater can save some fraction of this electricity. The key question is economic of solar water heater is economically viable or not? To answer this, two scenarios are considered: scenario1 in which solar water heater replaces electric water heating system and scenario 2 in which solar water heater replaces gas water heating system. The expected NPV E (scenario1) was found to be 8051.7 and expected NPV L(scenario2) was found to be 5152.8. A probabilistic approach, Monte Carlo simulation has been employed taking a normal probability distribution for each input variable. There is 98.37% chance of getting positive result for NPV E and 87.26% chance for NPV L. Therefore, solar water heater is an economically viable option. An innovative service-based business model is proposed for rapid penetration of so §16§lar water heater using the concept of 'hot water as a service'. This concept and model can be extended to the entire spectrum of application specific renewable energy options also. §02§Rout, Auroshis§Auroshis Rout is a Mechanical Engineer turned Energy-Management professional with double specialization M.Tech in Thermal Engineering and M.B.A in Finance. Presently, he is pursuing Ph.D. in the Department of Energy Science and Engineering, IIT Bombay, India. His research keywords are Energy Management, Exergy costing, Thermo-economics, LCA, etc.
