Category: solar heating

Why It Makes Sense To Use An Active Solar Home Heating

An active solar home heating system requires use of collectors that help in collecting solar radiation and in conjunction with electric pumps and fans; the system is able to achieve proper distribution of heat taken from its collectors. The typical heat transfer fluid used is either air or a fluid and a majority of active solar home heating systems also makes use of storage systems that help to provide the heat whenever there is lack of sunshine.

Limited Sunshine

An active solar home heating is ideally suited for use in places where the amount of available sunlight is not abundant though before selecting your active solar home heating system you will also need to take into account other factors including the site, and design as well as the building s heating requirements.

Mostly, people tend to prefer installing an active solar home heating system on the roofs of their homes though it is also possible to install the systems in the ground as well as to mount them on walls so that the system gets maximum radiation from the sun. The best person to advise you regarding how to install an active solar home heating system is of course a specialist in solar energy.

One of the more important questions that need to be answered before opting to use an active solar home heating system is how much heating should the system is able to provide. Typically, such a system should provide between forty and eighty percent of the total heating requirements of a home and a system that cannot provide at least forty percent of the heating requirements will prove to be financially a loss making proposition.

It is the size of an active solar home heating system that will help determine the quantity of heat it will be able to provide and so before you pick a system makes sure to know which size is adequate for your home s heating requirement. One way to determine the correct amount of heat that an active solar home heating system should provide is to use computer software which will calculate the exact amount for you.

When studying the disadvantages of active solar heating systems you will need to distinguish between systems that use air or liquid as the heat transfer medium. In the case of systems that use air there are separate set of disadvantages than is the case when using a system that uses liquid for its heat transfer medium.

Active Solar Water Heating Systems Are The Most Economical Options

There is perhaps no more economical as well as cost beneficial way to make use of renewable technology than by opting to use an active solar water heating system. Such a system will help in significantly bringing down the need to use traditional water heating systems and does so by about as much as two-thirds. In addition, an active solar water heating system will cut your electricity or fossil fuel bills and more importantly will improve the environment by cutting out pollution.

Electric Pumps, And Collectors

An active solar water heating system relies mainly on electric pumps that along with collectors that circulate water or other fluids and together these two components round off the main components of the system. As a matter of fact, there are also three distinct types of active solar water heating systems that are worth knowing more about.

The first type of active solar water heating system is the one known as direct-circulation system in which a pump circulates pressurized as well as potable water straight through collectors. Such types of systems are well suited for use in areas where there is little or no freezing and where the water is not hard or even acidic. However, such active solar water heating systems have not been given approval by Solar Rating & Certification Corporation, especially in case such systems also employ protection from recirculation freeze which requires use of electricity in order to ensure that the protection is effective.

The other type of active solar water heating system is the indirect circulation systems which are further classified as antifreeze and drainback systems. The antifreeze indirect active solar water heating system uses a mixture of glycol and water whereas the drainback indirect active solar water heating system makes use of pumps to circulate water through collectors and which also means that water in collectors loop drains back into reservoir tanks whenever the pump stops working.

The drainback indirect active solar water heating system is best suited in places where the climate is especially cold though such a system does also require to be installed very carefully to ensure that the piping is made to slope in a downward direction at all times so as to allow the water to completely drain out from the pipes. This however is not all that easily achievable.

An active solar heating system is a practical solution to keeping a home or building warm and in fact, typically such systems are used to provide between forty and eighty percent of heating needs of a home. Systems that provide less than forty percent of the heating requirements are not cost effective and so must be avoided as much as possible.