Solar heating has become a very popular way to control the temperature in many homes across the nation. Living in Florida allows us an exceptional opportunity to make use of the sun for our daily energy requirements. There are several different ways we can use solar when heating your home.
Passive Solar Heating
Passive solar elements are becoming very popular in new home construction. Passive solar doesn’t require solar panels to collect the suns energy. Passive Solar uses other elements and materials to help heat a home naturally. A home designed to be passive solar will typically have lots of strategically placed windows, stone or marble flooring, concrete walls, and other elements that trap and release heat throughout the home. Often these passive systems are used with other active solar or even geo-thermal systems. Many of these design elements also bode well to help with cooling in the summer.
Active Solar Heating
There are two primary types of active solar heating processes. A solar air heating system uses a panel and collects the energy from the sun and transmits that energy back in to your home in the form of heat. A liquid heating system is similar, but it uses a liquid base to collect the heat rather than the air. Both of these will be about the same cost to install. Solar liquid collectors are most appropriate for central heating. They are the same as those used in solar domestic water heating systems. Flat-plate collectors are the most common, but evacuated tube and concentrating collectors are also available.
Solar Heaters for your Pools, Spas, and Water Heater
Installing an active solar system in your home can be very costly. Many people will choose to start small and use solar to heat the water in their pools or spas. Many Floridians make use of Solar Heating for both their water and pools. Since we have such long hours of sunlight and mild weather some people may never need any other method for a warm shower. Use of a pool cover also can help reduce the size of a solar pool heating system, which can save money. Solar Heating saves a lot money in utility bills and gives you a good introduction to solar and some of the benefits it can provide.
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Jan 8, 2010 at 5:27 PM Anyone looking for more information on solar air heaters should check out Solarwindowheaters.com. They have some really great tips for the do it yourselfer as well as some professionally done solar air heaters.