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Solar Energy For Green Heating House Guide

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Letting Sun Power into Your Water and House

Solar energy is a great resource that scientists have long explored as a means of providing energy to meet human needs.

Thanks to advances in technology, there are now prototypes of various machines that run on solar power. These include solar powered cars, solar-heated homes, and solar-powered water heaters.

In fact, many of these machines have gone beyond the prototype stage and are being used in many green homes throughout the world, where their owners are determined to help save the environment by decreasing their reliance on fossil fuels.

There are many ways to harness the power of the sun to allow our turbines to run, our water to be heated, and our homes to be conditioned at just the right temperature.

One such method is the use of the solar panel, which you can often glimpse as a black platform filled with shining grids that glisten in the sun. This array of thermal collectors is connected to an appliance that can run on solar power.

The ability of appliances to run on solar power rests in the power of the individual grids on a solar panel. Each grid, called a photovoltaic cell or photovoltaic module, is arranged in a strategic array that is meant to collect the most sunlight and use the consequent energy most efficiently.

Such photovoltaic arrays are in wide use nowadays, and have enjoyed an upsurge in production as their manufacturing costs have since diminished.

Photovoltaic cells use semiconductors to utilize sunlight and turn it into electricity. You can see such cells in your solar-powered calculator, emergency telephones on the roadside, and even in some large industrial complexes.

With the lower cost of maintaining and manufacturing solar panels, you can use solar energy to heat your water and provide insulation for your home.

Contents at a Glance

Do you want help from the experts?
Solar Energy For Heating Your Home
Saving Energy - Heating Your Home in a L...
Go Green With Solar Heating, Save Energy
Solar Energy, The Future of Generating E...

Do you want help from the experts?

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Wind And Solar Power!

Solar Energy For Heating Your Home

If you are interested in using solar energy to heat your water and your home, then you might want to take note of the following tips.

Remember, that even if using solar energy has decreased in price, it is still relatively expensive compared with other energy providing and utilizing technologies.

- Always inquire in as many solar energy panels providers as you can. Look for a solar panel and heating package that can fit your needs and budget. Look for machinery that can allow you to heat water, your home, and even power your cooking apparatus. If you can use solar energy widely in your home, then you can save on your electric bills.

- Solar hot water systems can use sunlight in various ways to heat different sources of water in your home. You can have hot water through your faucet, or even route lines to heat your swimming pool.

Inquire at your solar energy panels providers on what packages they have for water heating, and if their apparatus can heat swimming pools. Swimming pool water contains different minerals, so it may require various modifications in conventional heating apparatus in order to keep the minerals from precipitating out of the water.

There are many advantages of using solar energy to heat your house and water. Using solar power to power your heating apparatus also entails that you emit less pollution compared with the use of other energy-generating methods.

Because electric grids and gallons of fuel are difficult to transport to remote areas, such as deserts and islands, solar panels can be economical and practical, especially since deserts and islands will often have sun all year round. Solar panels are also more practical for transports such as boats or airline carriers, which need energy without having to transport gallons of fuel or carry heavy electronic grids.

Despite these advantages, solar power is still expensive compared with grid-based electricity. Current technology for photovoltaic cells is also limited: you will need a greater number of photovoltaic cells in order to gather enough solar energy to drive larger applications.

This can entail higher purchases and maintenance costs. More photovoltaic cells also require a greater land area, which can be difficult if you live in a suburban area, where lands and lots are limited. Solar cells, moreover, produce a direct electric current, which must first be converted to alternate current, or AC, a change that results in an energy loss of about four to twelve percent.

Solar energy can still help save the environment, so if you are thinking about using it for your home and water heating, do as much research as you can. Make inquiries and compare prices. If you find a package that fits your needs and budget, then you can go right ahead and help save Mother Earth.

Here is a Green Heating resource for you to check out:

The Solar House: Passive Heating and Cooling

by: Daniel D. Chiras

Amazon Price: $15.69 (as of 06/01/2012)

"An excellent guide for embracing ecologically-friendly living." -- The Bookwatch, February 2003

Passive solar heating and passive cooling-approaches known as natural conditioning-provide comfort throughout the year by reducing, or eliminating, the need for fossil fuel. Yet while heat from sunlight and ventilation from breezes is free for the taking, few modern architects or builders really understand the principles involved.

Now Dan Chiras, author of the popular book "The Natural House," brings those principles up to date for a new generation of solar enthusiasts.

In "The Solar House," Chiras sets the record straight on the vast potential for passive heating and cooling. Acknowledging the good intentions of misguided solar designers in the past, he highlights certain egregious erros and shows how to avoid them. More importantly, Chiras explains in methodical detail how today's home builders can succeed with solar designs.

Readers will learn:
- How to select a cost-effective, energy-efficient, and environmentally friendly backup heating system.
- how to preserve indoor air quality in an airtight, energy-efficient home.
- ways of employing green building materials in a naturally conditioned home.

Customer Review: Thorough, concise, and up-to-date info for solar designs

I have spent a lot of time researching passive solar designs using books from the library & information on the internet. A lot of books on solar designs are from the 70's & 80's and the designs lead to overheating of homes by overglazing (too many windows). Some of the more current books on solar design gave more vague information, and didn't thoroughly describe concepts and materials.

This book has it all! Very good information on all the design elements, such as direction of home, foundation designs, window ratios, as well as recommendations for particular products. The book had in-depth information on all the available heating systems including solar heating, heat pumps, & radiant floor heating.

At the end of the description for each heating system, there was a pro/con list that talked about the energy effiency, cost, & performance of each heating system over others . There was a helpful chart on hot water heaters with payback periods for different fuels (solar, electric, gas, propane) so you could compare the costs associated with the fuel.

In all of my research, this was the first such chart that really spelled out the benefits of certain fuels over others. The book was written in 2002, so it is very up-to-date with the most current products & concepts.

Saving Energy - Heating Your Home in a Lukewarm Economy

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Go Green With Solar Heating, Save Energy

There are various and very practical devices that could be used in saving energy and they come in different brands, labels, methods of operation and products.

Some saving energy suggestions are:

The solar heaters - this energy-saving device provides heating for both space and water. Depending on the type of solar heater that is used (be it a part of the structure of the home or one that engage the use of a mechanical device), solar heaters are definite money saver. It is easy on the environment too. Greenpeace should love this one.

Electrical saving devices. These are devices that you plug into your socket that promise to reduce the volume of energy that you consume by stabilizing the flow of your electric current. The only limitation to these devices is that it could only control a specific volume of wattage, say 3000 watts, at any given time. If the household will use more than the wattage capacity that the device could handle, another device should be plugged in.

Finally, there are the energy saving light bulbs, lamps, heaters, appliances and other gizmos and gadgets.

But the fact remains that saving energy is fast becoming the order of the day taking into account the current realities. So if all the energy saving devices out there will still not suffice, the "use less and save more" principle will still add a good deal to your savings.

Green heating house Bargains to check out

Solar Energy, The Future of Generating Energy for the Home

Solar energy for residential houses is nothing new.

It has just been relegated to the background in lieu of rising cost of real estate; newer more advanced building materials, design and the limitation of resources.

Since man started building homes, sunlight played a major influence in the design. In fact, even in the more advanced urban planning method of the Ancient Chinese and Greeks, the orientation of the buildings is as much as possible directed towards where it could capture the most sunlight.

The ancients might not be as intellectually sophisticated then to use catch phrases as passive solar and thermal mass but when they build, they were building in compact proportion, employing overhangs, producing insulations and building in manners that direct the airflow within the structure and producing well lit, well ventilated spaces using the relative position of the sun to the orientation of their structures.

Lately, as the conventional sources of energy became more expensive, homeowners were once again turning to the sun for energy requirements.

Since the 1950's, harnessing the sun's rays has been developing and today the solar cell technology has achieved very efficient levels that modern (so-called green house) designs apply the sun's power to provide energy for the home.

While solar energy is free, the device that will convert it to run our appliances is not.

To provide solar energy for the home, solar cells called photovoltaic made from semi-conducting materials, are grouped into modules. These solar panels are mounted on rooftops, yards or open spaces where it can capture the maximum amount of sunlight.

Whenever possible, the panels will be installed facing south to get the most out of the sunlight but tracking systems are also used to follow the direction of the sun. The solar panels collect the energy from the sunlight. The process basically is that when the panels are exposed to sunlight, the electrons are separated form the atoms. This movement of the electrons creates electricity.

To store power, pumps are often used - circulating water in the cells. The water goes into a storage tank where the power is stored, ready for use. Sometimes, the use of gravity is employed if it will just the same store the heated water in to the tank.

In spite of all the development in solar energy though, the use of this technology is not enough to provide power to the whole house. The best method so far can only fulfill about 80% of a households power needs. The employment of solar energy for the home will still require the use of the conventional power distribution method.

Powering the homes by solar means will still, for a while be augmented by a local power distribution agency. To many, this is already a good starting point. Homeowners that feel that the high cost of powering their houses through solar power, is justified when compared to the price that is now being paid for conventional electrification method where horrendous amounts of CO2 are being dumped into the atmosphere just to generate a pitiful amount of electricity.

However, due in part to the rising costs of energy, the technology for solar energy has been undergoing rapid phases of development. Experts are confident that within five years, powering the home through the solar method will be made widely available for those who prefer it as its sole energy source.