Solar Heating – Does Solar Heating Work?

Solar heating systems have been around since the beginning of time; when man first realized that the heat from direct sunlight would heat up water in a container. Centuries later , a solar heating system would still consist of putting water in a tub or bowl, and then allow enough time to pass for the temperature of the water to warm up enough to take a bath or wash clothing. This was great in the summertime when the sun was at its highest point in the sky. However, often in the wintertime the sun was not strong enough to perform this simple task. Nothing much was thought about how to actually harness the sun’s energy until recently in the past 80 years or so.

Before the 18th century man could only dream of ways to collect the sun’s rays; they did not have the knowledge or the technology that we have today. Today, solar panels can be seen on the roof of many homes and businesses, conducting enough solar thermal heat to produce up to 75% of the buildings hot water needs. They can be seen in some homes for heating both the water in swimming pools and the homes hot water system. It seems that every year people develop new products pertaining to Solar Heating; panels and other items are continuing to get smaller and fit elegantly outside the house.

Issues of Using Solar Heating

Just in the past 50 years, man has advanced enough in technology to begin construction of Solar panels to first collect the sun’s thermal energy and to be able to store it. However, the cost of this technology was very expensive. There have been many private companies that have worked on the improvements of Solar power and the panels themselves. The panels were very large and bulky at first, taking up a large amount of space where ever they were built.

Today, the panels are not as big, and the costs are coming down all the time. The solar power packs are not the only items that a person needs to install. There are other necessary items that must be purchased separately in order to connect the Solar collector panels to a storage unit; such as a  pump, temperature sensors, air vents, pressure gauge, safety valve, expansion vessel and the connection pipes & gaskets. All of these items can be bought as a kit, and you can get different kits depending on your needs.

Solar Heating Works

Solar Heating has now advanced far enough that many people can purchase small Solar panels and packs that are so light-weight that they can be carried by one person. You can now find countries all around the world that have solar power stations which are connected to the power grid producing Heating for many homes and companies.

The Benefits of Using Solar Heating

Solar thermal heating is a lot more efficient and cheaper at producing hot water in comparison to electric solar panels or photovoltaic cells (PV). Conversely, the downside is they can’t produce electricity.

The world has seen what the fossil fuels have done to the earth’s atmosphere, and has just recently begun a world-wide program for cleaning up the pollution and restoring balance to the eco system. Solar Heating is contributing to that clean up. There are no harmful vapors or smog to contend with.

Governments around the world are offering credits and money back for people and companies that use solar heating which can help cover part of the cost of installation. In the very near future we will see many more solar heating units that are much smaller and much simpler to install. Technology will continually advance much faster than it has, and we will see theses changes in our life time.

Solar Water Heating can Provide Savings in Energy Bills and You Can Get A Solar Water Heating Grant

The economy is in bad shape, of that we have no doubt.  The cost of energy seems to be at the forefront of any argument these days.  It’s good to know that people are now thinking about the climate and better sources of energy than ever before.  However, how does that help you?  How do you know which clean energy sources are best for you?

One source of “free” energy you should consider is solar power, more specifically solar water heating.

You know how hard it is to keep your water at a hot temperature.  You fight all the time for a nice hot shower to end your hard day.  But sometimes it seems hard to get because you are so concerned with saving energy that you have to keep the water heater turned down.  With solar water heating units you can keep that heat cranked as high as it will go without worrying about your energy bills going through the roof!

Not only that, but in this eco-friendly age, imagine how great it would feel to NOT burn any fossil fuels for your personal benefit or feel guilty about heating your swimming pool.   You also know what it means to have your energy prices go up and down dependent on how the energy company feels that day.  With a solar water heater, your energy bill stays relatively constant and can even become non-existent!

We understand the problems facing home owners and their growing energy bills, so that is why it is important to check out solar water heaters.  Sizing is easy, and you can have them installed with very little hassle.  Many local governments offer tax incentives for those switching to renewable energy such as solar water heaters.

Some solar water heater features:

•    Solar water heating can provide 40-75% of your water heating from the sun.
•    In sunny areas, you may save 50-80% on your electricity or gas bill.
•    State and local governments offer incentives for renewable energy solutions.
•    Dependence on fossil fuels significantly reduced.
•    More control over your final energy bill.

There are two types of solar water heaters.  This is where you should start – deciding to size up exactly what you need.
•    Open Loop:  These systems are mostly used for homes that are not subjected to freezing temperatures.
•    Closed Loop: Closed loop systems are mostly for homes that will experience some freezing temperatures.

Basic Components used In a Solar Water Heater

•   Solar collectors or a panel which absorbs the suns energy, the modern ones work very efficiently. These are designed to fit on the side or roof of a building and installation is fairly simple, copper tube, thermal heat exchanger, pump, evacuated tube collector, storage system .

Be sure to check out the many options of solar water heating.  You really can’t go wrong with this wonderful, renewable source of energy.  For about a 3-6k, you’ll get about 25 years of renewable energy, and it will likely pay itself off in a meager 5-6 years.  If you want to be a part of the solution and not the problem, then invest in a solar water heater.

Don’t get caught out falling behind when every home has a solar water heater.  It is a much better idea to be at the forefront of this new energy revolution.

Let us help you on your way by providing you with information that will help you lower your energy bill and will save you and mother earth a lot!

Solar water heating collector tubes are said to be the most efficient method of heating water or providing heat for under floor heaters. The other method is the flat plate. Some people use electric mono-crystalline solar photovoltaic cells but these are not as energy efficient for delivering hot water to your home.

The question is should you use evacuated or the conventional collectors for your solar heating system. Evacuated collecters are very well designed. You have a series of tubes in a panel. Each can be individually replaced should it become faulty or get damaged.

What you have is two tubes, an inner and an outer one. The inner carries the water and the outer one creates a vacuum. This vacuum makes the system very efficient. The solar water heating glass tubes heat losses are kept to a bare minimum, less that 2%. It also means that these units can work in very low temperatures even down to as low as -40 deg F.

The liquid is pumped round the system, and the heated liquid transfers its heat to the water held in a hot water heater storage tank.

All very good, so why do people still use flat plate absorber panels for a solar hot water system? There are two main reasons. One is that the evacuated collector tube systems are larger and heavier than the flat plate collectors, this means you need at least two people to install it. Where as the flat thermal systems can be carried and positioned by one man.

The other reason is that because they are more sophisticated and have a lot more parts to them, they are more prone to damage. Remember you are dealing with glass with a vacuum between the two tubes. In the past, these panels have been susceptible to damage due to the thermal expansion of the different materials. The glass is connected to a copper pipe with a waterproof seal. Because glass and copper expand at different rates, this seal often became damaged. I understand that modern production techniques have by and large overcome this problem but when you compare them to flat plate systems there is still a lot more to go wrong.

In fact, the flat plate solar hot water system is extremely simple and have very little that can go wrong. The main things you have to look out for are joints leaking and ensuring your system is designed that it can never freeze up should the temperature plummet below freezing point.

There are plenty of suppliers who are offering solar tubes kits for easy installation and it might worth experimenting with it to see if it is right for you.  However I have seen reports and some independent organizations are saying that the efficiency of the evacuated type compared to the flat type, when measured over a year is not that much, perhaps 5% better. They are also suggesting that because there is less maintenance and fewer things to go wrong with flat plate, flat plate is a better option.

Solar water heating collector tubes are more efficient but you have to decide if the advantages are great enough to warrant the higher cost over flat plate.

Solar thermal panels are used for heating hot water which in turn can be used to heat your house, water for washing and showering and is a very green way of heating your swimming pool.

Most solar heating systems are used to heat water for washing and showering. The way the system is typically designed and installed is to have an array of solar collector panels on the roof of your home. These are then connected to a hot water tank and a fluid is circulated around the solar panels and the hot water tank. As the fluid passes through the panels, the suns energy heats the fluid up to a high temperature. However, the fluid that is circulated through your solar panels is used to heat the water in your hot water tank, it is not used for washing and showering.

These are not passive systems. They will have sensors to detect when the sun is hot enough to heat the fluid and will then start the pump working.

How Does the Fluid Heat the Water in the Hot Water Tank?

Inside your hot water tank is a copper pipe which is made into a coil so that you get a greater surface area in which to transfer the heated fluid in the copper pipe to the water stored in the tank.

This coiled copper pipe has an inlet at the bottom of the tank and an out let at the top. The solar panel outlet pipe is connected to the inlet on the tank and the outlet pipe of the tank is connected to the inlet of the solar panel.

What If the Solar Panel Does Not Generate Enough Hot Water?

If the solar panels, be it flat plate or evacuated tube type, do not heat the water to the desired temperature then you have a back-up system. You can get hot water tanks that are fitted with an electric heater element and a thermostat. Therefore the thermostat can detect if the water is hot enough, if it isn’t, the electric element will switch itself on until the correct temperature is reached.

Alternatively you can have your boiler plumbed into your hot water tank. This could be a back boiler which is fitted to a log burning or coal fire or it could be a gas boiler. So if the water is not hot enough, either of these systems will cut in as necessary.

If you have any questions about how solar heating works then ask it in the comment section below.

Traditional hot water tanks are designed to be heated by a boiler, and/or they are fitted with an electric coil. This hot water is generally used for showering or washing not heating the home.

A hot water tank which has been produced for use with a solar panel is designed to be heated by a boiler and/or an electric coil and a solar panel. The way the hot water system works is that it has a copper coiled pipe inside the top of the tank which is connected to your boiler and has a second coil at the bottom which is connected to your solar panel.

The tank is filled with cold water from your mains supply or a header tank. The fluid that is heated by the solar panel is pumped to your hot water tank, it travels around the coil in the bottom of the tank and while doing so, transfers heat from the fluid to the cold water in the tank via the copper pipe. This cooled fluid is then pumped back to the solar panel where it is heated again and this continues until the cold water in your tank reaches the desired temperature.

If the cold water in the tank does not reach the desired temperature from the fluid heated by the solar thermal panel (because the suns energy is not strong enough) then the systems control panel instructs the boiler to kick-in, which then circulates hot water to the top coil in the tank until the required temperature is met. This ensures you have hot water all year round.

Therefore, unless you have a tank with a coil at the top and one at the bottom then you can’t fit a solar panel to it.

Unless, I hear you say, what if you pump the cold water from your tank to the solar panel and keep circulating it until it heats up? Well, you still have a couple of problems.

The first one is retrofitting a flow and return (inlet and outlet) connector to your hot water tank. Hot water tanks are either made of thin copper or thin stainless steel. They are sealed units so you do not have access to the inside, so there is no way you can fit these connectors.

Even if you could, you are still faced with another problem and that is stopping the water in the solar panel from freezing during the winter months because you can’t antifreeze in the water like you can with a closed loop system.

You could use evacuated tube solar collector panels in contrast to flat plate solar collectors because they won’t freeze. However, if you are going to use evacuated tubes, then you may as well go a step further and invest in a new hot water tank.

If anybody has any suggestions on how you can install a solar panel to an existing hot water tank or would like to add something to this article then please leave comment below.

Solar water heating temperatures fluctuate by large amounts during the day and night as well as throughout the year i.e. summer and winter. Obviously the water is heated during daylight hours using the suns energy and if the water is not used then it needs to be stored in an insulated cylinder ready for use to provide hot water on demand.

During the summer months, solar thermal panels can provide up to 75% of a households hot water needs and in the winter months this can drop down to 25%.

There are two main types of solar thermal heating collectors. These are the evacuated tube and the flat panels. The evacuated tube heater panels work harder and are more efficient at converting the suns energy into hot water. These are made of glass tubes, and the gap between the tubes is a vacuum which gives its increased efficiency, plus they will not freeze when the temperature drops during the winter months. However the cost of installation is higher than flat panels.
The flat plate solar collector panel is made up of copper tubes which harvest the suns energy. These are not as efficient and will freeze unless an anti-freeze is pumped round the system.

However, the flatplate panels are currently more popular with home owners because they are lighter and easier to fit and more importantly there are fewer things to go wrong and maintenance is kept to a very minimum.

What if the Water is To Hot

A solar thermal hot water system design will include a sensor and mixer valve on the outlet pipe from the central hot water storage cylinder which feeds your households plumbing system. If the water that comes out is too hot, it will mix it with cold water from the mains supply.

What if the Water is To Cold

As a backup, the central hot water holding tank is also fed with hot water from your homes boiler or it has an electric coil fitted or both. So if the water temperature drops below a certain point, one of these backup systems will cut in.

And so this is how you get the figure 75% during the summer months and 25% during the winter months – for the amount of hot water your solar panels will produce.

If anybody would like to expand on this or specify what solar water heating temperatures they are getting from their solar panels then feel free to leave a comment below.

Using the suns energy for solar heating rain water is a very simple system to design and make and can be very effective on hot sunny days. Ideal if you want to build a solar shower in the garden. Furthermore, a real bonus is that if you wash your hair in rain water it becomes very well conditioned!

The first thing you need to do is have a source of rainwater. The easiest way to do this is to harvest the rain water that falls on the roof of your home. So you tap into the down drain pipes and siphon off the water into tanks. You might want one tank per drain pipe.

From these collector tanks you now want to pump this water, using solar powered pumps, into a central holding tank. The ideal location for this would be on the roof of your house, installed in a position where it is in direct sunlight for the majority of the day. Make sure you paint the tank matt black, you will definitely notice the difference in the temperature of the water.

All you have to do now is hook it up to your outdoor shower and at the end of a sunny day you will have warm water to bath in.

If you are feeling more ambitious, you can boost the heating of the water in the central cylinder. You can do this by attaching a black hose pipe to the central holding tank. Connect one end to the outlet and one end to the inlet. The longer the hose pipe the better it works. Attach a solar pump to outlet of the central tank and slowly pump and circulate the water in the tank via the hose pipe. As the water travels around the hose pipe it can heat up to very high temperatures.

Another way to do this is to make a solar thermal panel using a radiator, if you need more panels just connect the radiators together in series. So that the water passes from one radiator to the next getting warmer as it passes through each one. Remember to paint your solar panels matt black.

If you have any ideas on how to improve this system or have any better solutions for solar heating rain water, then please leave a comment below.

Nobody likes to take cold showers.  Dishwashers are impossible to operate without heat.  Water heaters come in many styles and sizes.  The majority of the heaters run on fossil fuels.  If you live in any climate, do you realize you could actually build a solar hot water system for your home or office? You will want to make sure it’s done properly, and to save a little on labor and supplies, you can in reality build your own system.

One source is solarfriend.co.uk, the site goes into good detail about what is needed to install your own system.  The author of the website claims their household has the potential of spending only £300 annually on electricity using the solar hot water system they installed.  This site will give you great detail, with step-by-step photographs, on how to build your own flat plate or evacuated tube solar collectors, panels and pipes.  The author explains the difference between the two systems, while providing diagrams as visual aids. There is also mention of a freeze-proof roof mounted water panel.

The El Paso Solar Energy Association (epsea.org) has many tips on alternative energies, including using the suns energy for passive solar water heating.  Passive solar heating is the oldest form of commercial solar energy. Terms you might find familiar include PSWH, Batch heater and Bread Box – and these are the passive solar water heaters.  General descriptions are given for these systems on this site, as well as general information on how to build your own.  For instance, you can paint your water heaters a flat black to retain more heat for longer periods of time.  Small diagram drawings are provided to show you some of the final products that you can build alongside verbal instructions on the build.

Several different types of solar water heaters are covered on jc-solarhomes.com.  Whether you are interested in passive or active energy.   Diagrams are given to the readers for assistance in building their own solar hot water systems.    Minimal verbiage is provided to the public. The site does offer a lot of FAQs that should be able to answer most consumers’ questions about cost, how solar power works, and how the systems work.  Flow rate theory and flow dynamics are given their fair share of educational points.  This site gets into some of the nitty-gritty that engineers may be interested in knowing.  If you are to purchase the E-book that is available at the site, you will be given step-by-step instructions and a total list of supplies needed to build your own system.

Popular Mechanics has an article on their website regarding the "Energy Family" making their own solar water heater.  This family has piggybacked their solar system on with a propane system.  They are trying their best to retain a small carbon footprint.  There is a four-step method covered with matching photographs as the family put together their system.   Supplies are listed so that you know what you need to purchase to get started.  Some general information regarding savings and costs involved are also given to the reader.  A very informative comment section can be seen at the end of the article, allowing you to learn even more about the solar hot water systems.

The best recommendation that can be offered would be the first site.  It is the most informative of the bunch, and has photographs, diagrams, and verbal instructions so that most anyone can follow and be able to manufacture their own solar hot water system with a minimal amount of problems.  Ideas are complemented with suggested buys for the parts needed so that you can start your savings right away.

Today people are trying to cut back on expenses in the home and one such way is to build an outdoor solar shower. Let us take a look at this ingenious man, Edward Schultz. He has five active little boys, and it became very expensive for him to heat hot water to wash them. Therefore, his solution was to make an outdoor shower in his garden; so his first task was to find out how to build an outdoor solar shower?

As he researched on the Internet for info on the subject of outdoor showers; he soon learned that most eco solar showers were designed for a quick shower by campers; not really practical for a family. Therefore, he decided to design one to fit the needs of his family. He decided to just use whatever he found around his home; which in his case was a farm. For those of us who do not live on a farm, you may have to purchase some of the materials.

Still if you are really thrifty you still can find bargains if you know where to look, for instance, most lumber yards sell damaged or warped lumber for next to nothing just to get the damaged timber off their hands. However, this man had a lot of the needed materials laying around his farm, gathered from years of projects. He had the idea that he wanted that rustic look for his outdoor shower. This is how he went about building an outdoor solar shower for his family. The frame, floor and upper deck were made from with 4X4 treated landscaping timbers; all of which he found on his property, so the wood had that look he was going for. Furthermore, for the cross braces, he used the branches he found lying around his property.

Therefore, this is how he went about building an outdoor solar shower

The hardware like screws he found in the barn. One of the great things about building your own outdoor solar shower is that you really don’t need to be a carpenter just someone with imagination and the basic tools. His design for the water reservoir tank was a couple of old unused metal garbage cans, these were positioned in direct sunlight, so they actually became the solar collector heating system. He painted one black which increased the collectors efficiency and made the water hotter. He did not use rain water (probably a step to far and would mean a shower once a month for the family) but plumbed it in from the mains water.

The simple plumbing he did consist of “3/4 inch CPVC threaded adaptor, two locking nuts, two large washers and two pieces of rubber” from an inner tube;this allowed for the water to be brought up from the bottom of the cans. He even used an old watering can for the shower head, he then hung the cans horizontally from a couple of branches.

For the flooring he did have to install culled wood from a lumber yard. Which as stated before if you buy the damaged wood from a lumber yard, you can get it for next to nothing. In the end his outdoor solar shower had a “capacity of 50 plus gallons” and gives about twenty minutes of shower time.

To give an idea of the temperature of the water the solar heater could produce, when it is 90 degrees or higher outside, the water was hot, like taking an indoor shower. Where as if the temperature was around  80 degrees, the heated water was comfortable and refreshing. However, If the temperatures were getting into the 70’s or lower, the water was like getting into an unheated pool. You get the idea, as the outside temperatures drop so does the water temperatures.
A project like this always has room to make improvements, like hanging a curtain for some privacy!

Reference: http://www.countrysidemag.com/issues/90/90-6/Edward_Shultz.html

Source: http://www.solarbotanic.com/