Category: solar heating

Everything You Need to Know About a Solar Home Heating System

Perhaps you are indefinite on the fact that you want to have a solar home heating system installed in your house, or you have maybe just begun to get interested in the idea, either way there are a few things that you are going to want to be aware of first. Remember that the more that you know about a solar hot water heating system before having it installed in your home, the better off you are going to be.

What it is

A solar home heating system is a system used to heat the home that runs purely off of solar power. This is readily available energy that is given off by the sun, and which offers homeowners and the world in general, quite a few benefits.

Before you can have a solar home heating system installed, there are a few questions you will need to answer. One is what size of solar system you are going to need and this will all depend on the amount of energy that you are going to require.

For a typical family of four, 4 square meters of collector and a total tank storage of 80 gallons are normal. Just be aware that these are only variables and may be different depending on the amount of water and heat that you use in your own home.

Build or Have Built?

Are you thinking of building your own solar home heating system or do you prefer the idea of having a professional company come in and get the job done for you? Most homeowners prefer the latter because then they know that they are going to get the best results and will not have to worry about spending money in case they mess up if they choose to build it themselves.

There are some great professional companies out there who specialize in the field of solar power and who will be more than willing to come in and get the work done for you.

Reliability and Durability

Although there are many different benefits that are offered by a solar home heating system, two of the most vital are reliability and durability. Properly designed and installed solar heating systems will last a lifetime, and with very little care and maintenance required at that. Normal maintenance consists of checking pipe insulation, roof penetrations and collector mounting, all of which are quite simple to do.

You Can Do it, Build Your Own Solar Heating System

Why would you ever rely on a professional to build your solar home heating system when you can build your own solar heating system? The thought of starting to build your own solar heating system may be overwhelming to some, but as long as you make yourself educated and are willing to learn, it really does not have to be all that hard.

How to do it

Now if you are seriously interested in getting to build your own solar heating system, you should know that it is quite a complex process. The first step is to get a solar heating system package, which should contain 8 metal pieces composed of copper pipes, copper links, and nickel pieces, and an aluminum box which will be used to support the solar heating system divided into three different parts.

Now you are also going to need a few specific tools to create your own home solar heating system. You will need a blowtorch, tin, electric screwdriver, screws, sandpaper, tools to cut the isolating material, and joints. This is obviously not a job that you are going to want to have kids around for because it can be dangerous so make sure that they are out of the way.

Now to get started and going to build your own solar heating system, you need to clean the ends of the copper links with the sandpaper. Now you want to soft-solder the copper links to the copper pipes, screw these pieces of metal together, test the watertightness of the pipes in putting pressure water inside the pipe, and then you assemble the aluminum box.

The next step to build your own solar heating system is to cut the isolating material so that you can put this in the bottom of the aluminum box that you have just assembled. Now you put the isolating material in the bottom and add the nickel pieces upper, and finally add the polycarbonate glass.

Now you are finished and this solar heating system is going to be enough to provide the heating for a small home. This is great and remember that you can do this on a larger scale if you want to provide heating for a larger sized home. As you learn more about solar power you will see that it is certainly not a difficult process as long as you know what you are doing.