besides are you replacing gas or electric water heater. i want to start looking into them now although i wont be buying one till the parents christmas of tax rebate season.
so what type of gas one should i be looking into?
or since i live in a state that boast 300 + days of sunshine go with a solar one?

See newer shorter version with a few more subtitles. Cost about . Worth about 0/year in the NorthEast where there is sun just 50% of the time. In Colorado and other locations, would be worth more! Still looking for better ways to get this connected to the window, but you can see at the end, it heats the air very nicely! Make and post pictures of your own and send any good ideas so we can make this better! More on how to do solar cheap and easy to come later Of course we are not recommending you make one of your own, that might save you money and be educational or even lead to a good business. Any risk is assumed by the builder.

I saw plans online for doing this. Basically, the version I saw, was just a shallow box with a glass face where the sunshine penetrates the box. The heat then rises into another square box where the veggies are placed. They are layed out on screens to allow the hot air to pass over them and dry the veggies. I looked into plans for these types of "solar heaters" a while ago to help heat my home and I know they can reach temps as high as 50 degrees above the outside (ambient) temp. Anyone ever try this? Any thoughts on how well it would work? How much would this kind of heat (about 120 degrees F coming out of the box) speed up the drying process? Thanks!