Sunday, June 28, 2009

Heating Water Efficiently With Solar Power

By Kobi Haretz

Deciding to switch your primary power source to solar power might require some adjustments to your current appliances. When using solar power to heat your water, you will first have to buy a solar photovoltaic panel kit. Living off grid is much easier today because of affordable solar panels that allow you to make homemade energy,which in turn allows for water that is heated efficiently.

You have a variety of options when switching to heating your water using solar power.You can even make your own homemade solar panels using a solar photovoltaic kit.The water runs through pipes before it enters your home. Heating water using solar power will take place before the water goes into your home as it passes by the solar source that attracted the light. You will also want to purchase a tank to store the water in.Heating your water successfully will require both a storage tank and a solar collector.

The most common collector is a flat plate collector. It is designed to be a thin, flat rectangular box that has a transparent cover and it can carry fluid to be heated. The fluid can be water or it may be a solution, such as antifreeze that will prevent the water from freezing. Next the water moves through the tubes to an absorber plate. This plate is painted black to attract and absorb the heat from the sun. When the collector gets hot, it will heat the fluid that passes through the tubes. The water will then pass through the tubes and then to the storage tank. This tank holds the heated water. It is usually well insulated so the water will stay warm longer. Then the water flows into the home on demand.

There are two groups in which solar water heating systems are divided into, Active and Passive:

1. The most common water heating system is referred to as active. It relies on some type of mechanical devices such as a pump, moving water from the flat plate collector to the storage tank. The active water heating system is more efficient and quicker making it the most common.

2. The Passive system for heating water is not as popular because it tends to be slow and may not keep up with demand. This water heating system relies on gravity to feed the water from your flat plate collector to the storage tank. Another reason it may not be as popular is that you must have your flat plate collector and storage tank at the correct angle for gravity to feed the water through.

Using solar power to heat water is very efficient and can be installed with little effort. It is a smart choice to use solar power to heat your water and is one of the first steps to going green. It is much easier to use solar power to do lots of things than ever before, including using it to heat our water.

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