I have been doing so for 30 years.
99% in summer, 50% or so in winter plus some house heat.
It is fairly simple and works.
If everybody would that could, it would save a huge amount of fuel.
We are slowly converting to solar electric, NOT grid tied. It doesn't make economic sense, just prefer reliable electricity if the grid goes down.
Solar even works well up here in NH for heating the water FOR YOUR SWIMMING POOL.
At my old house I had a system I built out of black plastic pipe I had on the south facing roof of the house. It was great for the shoulder season of the summer(May and Sept) when the daily temperature is not as high. From mid June to late August the sun by itself was enough to keep the pool in the mid 80’s.
All you need is a circulator pump to draw the water up to the highest point. Then it flowed all the way down to the bottom of the deep end from there.
This was actually a lot cheaper than running a propane heater. The pump did not use a lot of electricity. It would cost $400/month to run the propane heater just for the propane.
How does your hot water system work?
What did it cost to build?
Do you have any pictures you could provide?
I'm with ya. I built a non-grid tied system a few years ago with no hope of recouping that expense. On sunny days I run the house with it and when grid is down I'm on batteries. I never regretted the expense.
Have you done a cost/benefit analysis on that? Just curious!