Any business that uses a significant amount of hot water may be a good candidate for solar water heating.  Examples of Oregon businesses that are using solar energy to heat water include apartment buildings, dormitories, restaurants, laundromats, carwashes, firestations, aquatic centers, and recreation centers.  Businesses should always look first for cost effective waste heat recovery options for water heating.

For multifamily residential buildings, individual solar water heaters can be installed to serve each unit, or one common system may be installed that serves all units.  Metering options exist that allow the owner of a common solar water heating system to measure the solar energy benefit received by each unit, and potentially charge the tenants for that benefit.

For commercial buildings working toward LEED-NC or EB certification, the energy savings attributed to solar water heating count toward the energy performance points.  There is currently no LEED point for solar water heating itself.

Engineers commonly design commercial solar water heating systems using energy modeling tools, including RETScreen, FChart and TRNSYS.  These tools estimate the hot water energy load of a facility, an appropriately sized solar water heating system for that load, and the expected annual energy savings that would be expected from such a solar water heating system design.

Incentives/tax credits for businesses