[insane_dreamer]

> When I lived in Beijing, the apartment buildings I lived in usually had solar hot water

was that recently? I lived there from 2011-2017 and solar power was virtually unheard of, much less powering any buildings. But yeah, China is that kind of place that the city decides when you get heating in your apartment (Nov 15 IIRC, so early Nov could be _really_ cold inside; we wore our coats).

[seanmcdirmid]

That was way back in 2008! Solar has been in China for a long time, but they were using it directly to warm the water, not via photovalic panels (which is why the results were so bad).

[insane_dreamer]

well, whatdoyouknow, maybe our apartment's water was indeed heated by solar and I just had no idea :)

[seanmcdirmid]

It’s hard to say. If they use photvalic instead of pure solar, they can top off a lack of sun with electricity from other sources to keep the hot water warm (outside of winter when it’s all natural gas based anyways). Ome would think they could do a better job with personal heat pumps.