The Florida Solar Energy Center (FSEC) was ten years old in 1984. Constant maintained contact has been between the Center and solar businesses selling and installing domestic hot water systems in Florida and throughout the Southern states and Caribbean. FS-PC has thus had the opportunity to visit or discuss thousands of DHW system installations with homeowners and installers. This paper provides an overview of lessons learned and some of the resulting installation recommendations for direct, open-loop domestic hot water systems.Units: Dual