re: gominer told you 3.30 pm Spender, Quantum have a joint...

re: gominer told you 3.30 pm Spender, Quantum have a joint venture in China to produce heat pump water heaters in China. Its main advantage is its low wages, but thats a two edge sword as most Chinese couldnt afford them (Im sure that there are alot who could though).

By the way Gominer, Victoria doesnt have or isnt enforcing solar heating regulations on all new buildings commencing 2004, go back and read your post on 4/7/03

All new Victorian homes will have to have solar hot water or rainwater tanks under building regulation changes to be announced today.

The changes are part of the State Government's mandatory five-star energy standards to come into full force in July 2005.

The full range of measures would lift the price of a new house by about $3300, industry sources said last night.

The changes are part of a deal done with the housing industry in which the full implementation of the system - scheduled for January 2002 - has been postponed for two 1/2 years.

The industry has won other concessions, including exclusion of apartments and mobile homes from the five-star standard.

So it seems your can chose a $3-$4000 hot water system or a $500-$1000 rainwater tank, think most will chose the cheaper, specially when Victoria has natural gas and instantaneous gas HWS are very efficient and are around the $1200 mark