This paper focuses on the assessment of possibilities to subsidize the purchase and installation of solar collectors in Poland by government or local government grants and special funds designed for this purpose. It analysis of costs and profits resulting from the application of solar installations in the process of heat generation for household requirements, by calculating the payback time, with taking into account prices of other energy carriers and the above mentioned subsidies. Collectors at present are manufactured solely from metals (copper, aluminium, Al-Mg alloys). The use of these materials is tied to considerable energy demand and the production technology is complex. This affects the economy of running a solar device.