Take the Sun Home with You

Solar Energy

You can use the energy from the sun to heat your home, thus solar energy. The amount of solar energy that is transmitted from the sun in the United States in just 20 minutes can supply our energy needs for an entire year. This energy is free. We just have to have a system in place to capture the energy. Solar heat works by absorbing the sun’s radiation and converting this to heat energy. Natural convection or air movement is an integral part of successful solar heating installations. This solar heat can then be used to heat your home whether a small area or the entire home. You can also use solar energy in your water plumbing system.

There are many benefits to using solar heat in your home, for example, it:
• is environmentally friendly
• does not pollute or produce greenhouse gases
• helps conserve the earth’s energy resources
• is the best choice for people with allergy problems and chemical sensitivities
• is stable in price. Although the solar energy is free, the system will have a one-time cost (equipment/installation), but then you don’t have to worry about future oil prices or inflation.

Passive Solar Heating
A passive solar heating design does not actually include any sort of mechanical heating device. Rather, passive solar heating functions by incorporating building features that absorb heat and then release it slowly to maintain the temperature within the home. These building features, often referred to as thermal mass, may include large windows, stone flooring, and brick walls.

For passive solar energy to be utilized effectively there must also be a means for the heated air to circulate throughout the home. The natural circulation of air is usually enough as long as doors are left open throughout the home, however, sometimes fans are also incorporated into the design to facilitate this.

While these may sound like relatively simple measures, passive solar heating features can reduce heating bills by almost 50 percent. And, in many cases, especially if you’re working with a builder who is familiar with the processes of passive solar heating, building a passive solar home may cost the same as building a conventional home.

Active Solar Heating
Active solar heating is similar to passive solar heating, but it is a much more involved process and generates much more heat than passive systems do. Active solar heating relies strongly on three components: a solar collector to absorb the solar energy, a solar storage system, and a heat transfer system to disperse the heat to the appropriate places in your home.

Active heating systems can be divided into two categories: air systems and liquid systems. The differences in the heating systems are in the way the solar energy accumulates in the solar collector. Liquid systems use a liquid to collect the energy in the solar collector; whereas air systems absorb the energy through the air.

Since solar collectors are normally installed on the roof of the building being heated, it is best to place the hot air outlet in the ceiling to shorten the duct run. A system installed in this manner mixes the air in a building like a ceiling fan in addition to supplying solar heat.

The downside of an active solar system is that the initial installation costs are much higher, since in most cases you will also need to install a traditional heating system for the times when the solar heating can’t work—many cloudy days in a row, for example. Active solar heating systems can be expected to supply between 40 and 80 percent of your home’s heating, depending on the size of the system you have installed as well as the climate where you live. However, in the long term you will reap the benefits (and break even) through significant savings on utility bills.

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