A typical solar system will reduce the need for conventional water heating by about two-thirds. Often the plumbing from a solar heater connects to a houses existing water heater, which stays inactive as long as the water coming in is hot or hotter than the temperature setting on the indoor water heater. When it falls below this temperature, the homes water heater can kick in to make up the difference. Incorporating passive solar designs can reduce heating bills by as much as 50 percent. High-temperature solar water heaters can provide energy-efficient hot water and hot water heat for large commercial and industrial facilities.

Many large commercial buildings can use solar collectors to provide more than just hot water. Solar process heating systems can be used to heat these buildings. A solar ventilation system can be used in cold climates to preheat air as it enters a building. And the heat from a solar collector can even be used to provide energy for cooling a building. The Co-operative Insurance Building in Manchester has the largest commercial solar system in the UK. I think it looks very futuristic and cool!

You can generate electricity for a single building like more…

WOW! We are almost all in agreement about at least one form of renewable energy; ninety per cent of Americans think that builders should be offering the option of solar power in new homes.

For those unsure of the term: solar power is the term used to describe the resulting energy from the conversion of sunlight into electricity. In order to do this, the sunlight must first be ‘captured’.

Because there is always (so far!) sunlight, this is called a renewable source of energy. This means once we have perfected the technique to turn the sunshine into electric power, we can always use that technique as there is always sunlight and it is always free.

Solar energy in a primitive form has been used for centuries by various civilizations. Nowadays with technology at such a sophisticated level, solar power can be used to provide heating, lighting and electricity.

Water heating is easy to install in new homes as the panels for it are usually placed right in the roof. Believe it or not, America first had solar water heaters as early as 1890! In many climates the sun can provide up to 75% of more…

In the 1970’s and 80’s Solar Energy first emerged as a potentially viable and cost-effective alternative to traditional heating sources such as fuel oil, natural gas, coal, wood, and electric. Unfortunately, these first generation solar collectors were expensive, inefficient, and delivered long payback periods and lower returns on the initial investment than expected.

In the following decades leaders in the Solar Energy Industry went back to work, striving to create more efficient, more affordable, and more cost-effective Solar Water Heaters that would not only be a viable alternative to traditional heating sources, but would be able to supplant the majority of our heating needs, lowering the world’s dependence on non-renewable energy sources, which cannot be replaced once they are depleted.

Today, there are three main types of Solar Water Heaters available. These collectors are for more efficient and cost-effective than their predecessors, and are well-suited for a number of applications such as small residential installations and pool heating, all the way to large commercial, industrial and municipal installations across the United States, and around the world. These three collectors are Evacuated Tube Solar Collectors, Flat Plate Solar Collectors, and Unglazed Solar Collectors.

Evacuated Tube more…

Nobody likes cold showers, particularly early in the morning. Take the following steps, however, and you can save serious cash on your water heating costs.

Save Money By Improving Hot Water Usage

To the surprise of many, heating water is the biggest energy expense in the typical home. Most people think the highest cost is heating or cooling the interior air, but this simply is not true. Fortunately, taming your energy use for water heating is fairly simple if you take some basic steps.

One of the reasons heating water is such a big expense has to do with time. Simply put, your water heat works 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 52 weeks a year. When you wake up in the morning and take a shower, the water heater fires up to keep enough hot water in the tank. Obviously, this is necessary. What is not necessary, however, is the number of times the tank fires up during the day when everyone is at school or work. How about at 2 in the morning when everyone is asleep? When your water heater uses energy to keep the pool of water in more…

Water is one of the most important things in people’s lives. In some cases, people might need hot water in some of their activities. This makes them need a heating appliance that is fast and efficient. There have been several methods of heating and there are still others who are developing better heaters. Because of the new water heating technology, the tank-less water heater has been developed. It is also called the stand-alone appliance and is mostly used to heat water for domestic use. It has been in the market for over 30 years and has been well accepted and put to use in many places like China, Japan and the United States. This has come as an improvement to the prior water heaters which were conventional.

There are several reasons to use the tankless water heater. These include the speed of heating water, which is very fast. The conventional water heaters in the tanks keep heating water all through the day. As for tankless water heaters, no tank is required and only the needed water is heated. This saves much heat, which could have been used when heating water using conventional water heaters. This system of heating is more…

The past year has seen a huge growth in interest in renewable energy solutions, driven by a range of concerns relating to climate change, greenhouse gas emissions, sustainability and energy independence. The uptake of renewable energy is being further encouraged by a growing range of government subsidy and rebate schemes which make renewable solutions more attractive and affordable for consumers.

Foremost among the solutions currently on offer are those that derive energy either directly or indirectly from the sun. These systems are of three main types: photovoltaic systems, wind systems and microhydro systems. Photovoltaic systems use solar panels to convert sunlight directly into electricity, while wind and microhydro systems use turbines and generators to convert the energy in moving air and water (ultimately driven by the sun) into electricity. While they can be very cost effective in the right circumstances, the practicality of wind and microhydro systems is highly dependent on location. If you live in an area without access to reliable winds (many of us) or a reliable stream or river flow (most of us), then wind and microhydro are not viable options. In general, photovoltaic systems are the most practical, versatile and flexible renewable energy more…

You have probably heard it said by environmental groups that we should switch to solar energy as a power source because it is free, there is an unlimited supply, and it is a cleaner source of electrical power because there are no by-products (compared to fossil fuels like oil and gas which release greenhouse gases into the earth’s atmosphere when burned for power.) However, can solar energy be a reliable and practical source of electrical power indeed?

When we use the term solar power nowadays, it usually refers to man-made technologies that rely on the flow of sunlight from our sun to create electricity or even mechanical power. Early pioneers in the conversion of solar power into usable forms of power were Auguste Mouchout, Frank Shuman, Charles Tellier, and John Ericksson. But the real breakthrough in conversion of solar power into pure electricity was achieved by the Bell Laboratories research team when they created the solar cell. Other people have been able to build on this development so that solar cells now have an efficiency of more than 40% and their prices have fallen to not more than $3 per watt.

Solar power technology is categorized as either more…

There are two thoughts when it comes to a solar hot water heater, depending on the location your hoping to put the hot water, solar panels might not be required. Nevertheless, to provide hot water through your entire home a solar hot water heater must be connected to an adequate number of solar panels to charge your batteries once the hot water usage is completed.

Active and Passive Systems

There are usually two kinds of systems: active and passive with active systems incorporating pumps and other types of controls whereas the passive systems doesn’t need such accessories. Typically in a solar hot water heater the heat will transfer the water into pipes or other types of storage systems then it is exposed it to sunlight, heating the water contained in the pipes. It is moved to storage tank by various pumps in an active system whereas gravity is normally used to move the water in a passive system.

In a solar hot water heater the storage tank needs to be very well insulated to keep the water’s heat level elevated.. In numerous systems there are two tanks where water is heated using the collectors and then it more…

Unlike a conventional storage tank water heater, a tankless water heater starts to heat water only on demand. It has a heating device that is automatically triggered by the flow of water when the hot water valve is turned on. Once it gets activated, the heater delivers an uninterrupted supply of hot water. You can run it for as long as you need to at a stretch without the water going cold.

Most of the latest tankless water heaters have computer-monitored safety devices and automatic water and gas valves. They are more flexible in terms of possible applications. Some of them can even be used in boats, mobile homes and RVs, radiant heating systems, etc. These water heaters are used to fulfill all your hot water needs or else to supplement the heat from a solar hot water system. They save up to 20 per cent of your water-heating bill. This can be considered to be a significant saving in view of the fact that water heating accounts for about 14 percent of the average U.S. household energy budget.

Tankless water heaters, which could either run on gas or electric, are rated by the maximum more…

The solar collector is assembled so that it faces south. Sunlight passes through the collector’s glazing, striking an absorbent material which then converts it into heat, the glazing then prevents this heat from escaping. The temperature inside a glazed solar collector can easily reach 150°C if there’s no heat transfer fluid flowing through it.In solar water heaters the most commonly used solar collectors are glazed flat plate or evacuated tube collectors.Watch some videos on solar hot water collectors.  A glazed flat plate collector consists of a shallow rectangular box with a transparent glass “window” covering a flat black plate. The black plate is attached to a series of parallel tubes or one serpentine tube through which air, water, or other heat transfer fluids pass.An evacuated tube collector consists of several individual glass tubes, each containing a black metal pipe through which the heat transfer fluid passes. The space between the pipe and the glass tube is “evacuated,” so the air is removed. Get a quote or contact a company in our Green Pages solar sectionThe more unusual, unglazed plastic collectors can be used as a seasonal solar water heating system. However, they are used mostly for pool heating. Each collector more…