How Does Solar Heating Work
Solar thermal panels are a lot more efficient at solar heating water than photovoltaic panels!
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.
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