We live just beyond the natural gas lines, so ours was delivered propane. That costs about the same as electricity for cooking, hot water, and heat, just because they can charge that much. What are you going to do? Use wood? So when solar electric got cheap, lots of folks converted to electric since it was electricity they generated. But solar water panels are much cheaper than PV panels, and much much more efficient. If you have room for them. We do. If you can store and make use of that low level heat, it's about 1 KW per square meter at sunny noon. And it averages 5 KWhrs per day per square meter. For me, every KWhr I can harvest is one less KWhr I need from the power company or the propane people.

Educating anyone benefits everyone.