When you first buy a solar water heater it will state that it's hooked up and working. After one use (or after the sun goes down) It will never recharge again, and you'll always have cold water. I ...
Ideas
The Solar Water Heater came with For Rent. It does say it only works when the sun is out, but you'd think it would store a bit of hot water in that tank on top. It doesn't matter if you're playing on or off the grid, you will only have hot water during the day and only if the sun is shinning. I assume this is intended, but... not a clue.
6:04 PM FullyOpperational (Ignore Cortez's millions. He won the lottery several times when I was playing other households.)8:44 PM No hot water8:44 PMAnd yes. It's very buggy off the grid. Since - presumably - it's purely a passive water heater and doesn't actually "charge" in the same way as the solar panels, I'm not sure what it actually does off the grid (or on the grid). Either way it doesn't use electricity. So, at least on a sunny day - while the sun is up - you should always have hot water. But, no. Seems like a neat idea poorly implemented.
Thought that was an Eco thing.. too many objects now.