Solar Water Heating Panels
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by: HarrisonThompson | Total views: 30 | Word Count: 623
When you're considering using solar energy for your home, you'll have the option of using either PV solar panels in order to produce electricity, or you can use solar water heating panels to heat water. Both will save you money on energy bills, and they're good ways of reducing your carbon footprint. In this article though we're gong to focus on solar hot water systems.
Savings From Solar Energy
To find out exactly how much you can expect to save with a solar hot water system you will have to contact an expert who will be able to survey your property. They'll have to take in to account things like the sort of system you have now, the direction your roof points in, and what sort of weather you get in that area.
Actually though the issue of weather is not that an important one. The more direct sunlight you get the better for the solar hot water panels of course, but they still work when it is cloudy and cold. So things like the direction your roof is pointing in is actually more important.
In general, with solar thermal panels, you will be able to get 70% of your heating needs taken care of. Depending on what sort of central heating system you have, the hot water can be used for that as well as for your hot water taps of course. So that's a significant amount of heating that you can get from renewable means.
Different Kinds Of Solar Thermal Panels
There are two kinds of solar water heating panels, flat-panels and evacuated-tubes. The best kind to use are the evacuated-tubes, they're the most efficient. However they are also the ones that are more expensive, so it will depend on your budget as to which will actually be the better ones to get.
In terms of how they work, the principles are the same. They both have absorber plates which collect the heat from the sun, and then they transfer that heat either to the water directly or to a heat transfer substance (more on that in the section on circulation systems).
As to why the evacuated-tubes are actually more efficient, that's because their absorber plates are running round the circumference of the tubes. This means that it has the advantage at multiple angles that the sun is shining from, and it also means that the surface area of them is larger.
Different Circulation Systems
You'll have two more major choices to make in terms of the kind of solar hot water system that you want. One of those choices has to do with whether the water is going to be directly heated or indirectly with the use of heat transfer substances. The other one is to do with how the water should be circulated, whether with pumps or without.
To remove the suspense, the best choice, usually, is to go for active and indirect circulation systems. The reason that it's better that pumps are used is because it is simply more efficient that way. The reason that it's better to use a heat transfer system is that this removes the possibility of the water freezing in the panels.
Of course that's not always going to be the best combination. If you don't have to worry about freezing temperatures, then you could just as easily go for a direct system instead. Although you'd still be open to difficulties if the water stagnates for any other reason.
Also, if cost is a particular concern, then you might not want to go for an active system. The passive systems are generally the cheaper options. They do also make the design more difficult though because everything has to be placed very exactly so that the gravity and heat convection will work to get the water circulated properly.
About the Author
To find more info on solar energy, author Nathan Thompson has written a lot more about this subject at http://www.solarwaterheatingpanels.org.uk. Learn more regarding the way all of it functions, including the amount of money it's possible to make, also you can obtain a free quotation for a solar installation.
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