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Posts Tagged ‘solar heating’

Efforts are being made by everyone to protect the environment. People are turning off lights or buying more energy efficient bulbs to save the environment. However, they are also doing something else – they’re installing solar heating in their homes to both help protect the environment and lower their energy bills.

What Are The Perks Of Solar Heating?

There are various perks of solar power and solar heating. First and foremost, solar energy is free and inexhaustible because it comes from the sun, which is always giving off energy. Solar panels then absorb all of that power and it doesn’t cost you anything beyond what you have to pay for installation and maintenance of those panels. Each day, on average, a square meter of solar paneling collections about 4.2 kilowatt-hours of energy that can be used for anything you need it for. Solar heating systems cost between $1,500 and $3,000 depending on certain conditions. However, once installed, they offer one truly spectacular perk: they cut down on electric bills anywhere from 50 to 80 percent in most households.

Where Are Solar Panels Installed?

In order to begin using solar heating in your home you have to install solar panels. These panels, which absorb sunlight and turn it into energy, are installed on a south-facing, sloped roof. When using this energy for solar water heating, the energy solar panels collect is transferred to a liquid in the panels that moves through pipes and carry the warmed water wherever it needs to be. This liquid is either the home’s actual water or a special fluid similar to antifreeze. The fluid flows through a special heat exchanger in a home’s water heater and it gets warmed just like in an electric heater does it.

Types Of Solar Heating Systems

There are four types of solar heating systems. The first type is known as “passive.” Also called breadbox collectors or batch collectors, they are used in areas where the temperature rarely drops below freezing temperature. Water in passive systems circulates without pumps. “Active” systems, meanwhile, use pumps to circulate the water or a special anti-freeze solution.

There are also solar heating systems that called direct and indirect systems. In a direct system, any water used by people to wash their clothes or bathe in is the same water that’s actually pumped through a collector. However, in indirect systems, the solar heating unit uses an antifreeze solution to warm the water.

If you’re planning on installing solar heating in your home, make sure you do your research!

Solar energy is just energy which comes from the sun. This natural energy source can be used for a wide variety of things inside your home. Many people think of using solar energy for their electricity needs, and that is certainly an excellent way to use it. In most cases though, you can actually just use the sun’s energy to help heat your home naturally. Doing this does not require the use of solar panels, solar cells, storage batteries, or any complicated grid setup. Of course you’ll get much more benefit from setting up an actual solar power system using panels and grids, but if you simply want to start utilizing the natural power of the sun today, there are several ways you can do so.

To use solar power heating naturally, all you need to do is set up a way to absorb the heat from the sun. In the winter for example, you can start reducing your electric bill by allowing the sun to supply some of the heat for your home. The easiest way to do this is to just open the curtains and allow the sun to shine into your home during the daylight hours. The sun brings light to us during the day, and heat too. So anything the sun shines on inside your house will soaks up that heat naturally. Any items which help absorb the warmth from the sun will also help your house retain some of that heat after the sun goes down.

You’ll have much better results though if you purposely set out to try and absorb as much of the sun’s heat as you can each day. And to do this, you simply need to know which types of materials absorb and retain the sun’s heat easily.

Most types of metal for example will absorb heat quickly and easily. Some metal gets hot faster than others and releases that heat much more slowly. If you lay a sheet of copper in the sun for example, you’ll notice it gets hot quite quickly. Once the sun goes down, the copper will start releasing its heat into the air around it. And this can be used as a natural heating system for your home. You could do the same type of thing with most metals.

Any dark furniture or fabrics in your home will also absorb heat from the sun fast. You may have experienced this yourself in the summertime actually. Getting inside of a vehicle which has black seats will be much hotter to the touch than getting inside of one which has light-colored seats. And you can use this to your advantage when heating your home in the winter time as well. If you have furniture covered with dark fabric, try to put them in a sunny location of the room so they can soak up the heat more quickly throughout the day. You can also place dark curtains at the window, or position dark pieces of furniture, accents, or decor in the sunlight too.

Other materials which absorb heat very nicely and make great solar power heating sources include concrete, brick, Adobe, and water. If you live in a home which has concrete or brick walls for example, those walls will absorb heat from the sun throughout the day and store it. Then as the nighttime coolness creeps in the stored heat will slowly be released which helps maintain a comfortable temperature in your home while using less electricity.

I live in the desert Southwestern areas of the United States, and solar power is something I’ve been heavily interested in for years. Since this area of the country tends to have 300+ days of sunshine each and every year, it makes sense for me to take advantage of that in my home.

Putting in a full solar powered home energy system can be expensive though, particularly if you have a large family. I don’t know why I thought I had to do it all at once though. It’s pretty simple to take smaller steps forward, and you can really see the difference in bills from the start.

When the electric bills at our house hit the two and three hundred dollar marks each month (sometimes more!), I decided that was way too much. So the first step I decided to take was reducing consumption.

– I replaced all my standard lightbulbs with the more energy efficient versions. I was honestly amazed that doing this knocked the overall electric bill down quite a bit.

– I sealed up various cracks and drafy spots around the house. We live in an old rental house that hasn’t been cared for over the years, so drafts in the summer and winter are horrible. Blocking the drafts made a huge difference in keeping the house at more comfortable temperatures throughout the year.

– I started using more of the sun’s natural solar energy. I open my curtains in the winter so the sun can help heat my home. I also place water jugs in the sun so they can store heat during the day. At night, these are excellent heat source supplements to our small space heater.

I’ve also been trying out various forms of natural convection heating, solar power heating, and I’ve been learning how to create my own solar panels too.

Solar panel prices can vary quite a bit, but they’re cheaper if you’re willing to install them yourself. I’ve found ready made residential solar panels for as low as $700. I’ve come across many ways to build solar panels yourself too, for less than $200. And since you can install the solar system a little at a time, those low costs make it so much easier to get started.

I just found this at newenergytips.com.  It’s not bad: Are you looking for ways to convert your house to provide you with solar hot water?  Solar water is an easy thing to come by, if you know how to harness it.

There are several reasons you might be looking to harness solar hot water. Top reasons are: