How Do Solar Water Heaters Work?
by Scott Rodgers
The suns radiations received on the earth in an hour exceed the amount of energy that is utilized by people all over the world in a year. For a long time now, Europe, Japan, China, Israel and Australia have been using solar water heating. Using solar energy eliminates the need to use gas or electricity to heat water.
It is a green technology and not just reduces your carbon footprint but also your utility bills. The principle behind solar water heating is capturing the heat from the sun's radiations on a panel and transmitting this heat to water directly or indirectly.
In relatively warmer areas, solar heaters do a good job of supplying enough hot water throughout the day. But in areas where winters are severe, they may not heat the water sufficiently and need to have electricity and gas boosters attached to them.
For harvesting solar energy, collecting panels are generally set up in the rooftop. These collectors either have a black metal sheet enclosed within a glass encasement and connected to copper pipes or contain a set of metal pipes that are each surrounded by cylinders made of glass. There is vacuum between the pipe and the glass cover.
Sometimes a water tank is covered with a glass box and this forms a batch heating system. Heat is concentrated in the tank because of the box and the tank has insulating layers that prevent heat loss. In order to minimize further wastage of heat, the inner surface of the glass can be made reflective. Because of their low surface to volume ratio, batch heaters aren't the most effective solar heaters.
In Italy and some other regions, coiled black pipes are also used to concentrate heat. A parabolic mirror to concentrate solar radiations and then direct them to the collectors makes solar heating very efficient and usable for large‐scale industrial heating also.
Two types of solar heaters are passive and active solar heaters. In the former, the hot water storage tank sits at the bottom of the collectors and water is circulated using a pump. In the latter there isn't a pump and water flows passively and enters the tank, which is at the top of the collectors because of convection.
Water may be heated in these systems directly as it passes through the collectors or indirectly by heat transfer fluid (containing anti‐freeze) flowing through the collectors. Passive direct heating systems are more suitable for use in warmer climates where water won't tend to freeze in the pipes of the collector. Build it yourself and save! Sale price on instruction manual with bonuses!
Scott Rodgers is a noted writer who has been providing great advice on plumbing works all over the country. His splendid knowledge has, in fact, sparked significant rise in revenue for talented plumbers across the nation, from Schenectady Plumbers (Need one? click here) to Casa Grande Plumbers (Need one? click here!).
The suns radiations received on the earth in an hour exceed the amount of energy that is utilized by people all over the world in a year. For a long time now, Europe, Japan, China, Israel and Australia have been using solar water heating. Using solar energy eliminates the need to use gas or electricity to heat water.
It is a green technology and not just reduces your carbon footprint but also your utility bills. The principle behind solar water heating is capturing the heat from the sun's radiations on a panel and transmitting this heat to water directly or indirectly.
In relatively warmer areas, solar heaters do a good job of supplying enough hot water throughout the day. But in areas where winters are severe, they may not heat the water sufficiently and need to have electricity and gas boosters attached to them.
For harvesting solar energy, collecting panels are generally set up in the rooftop. These collectors either have a black metal sheet enclosed within a glass encasement and connected to copper pipes or contain a set of metal pipes that are each surrounded by cylinders made of glass. There is vacuum between the pipe and the glass cover.
Sometimes a water tank is covered with a glass box and this forms a batch heating system. Heat is concentrated in the tank because of the box and the tank has insulating layers that prevent heat loss. In order to minimize further wastage of heat, the inner surface of the glass can be made reflective. Because of their low surface to volume ratio, batch heaters aren't the most effective solar heaters.
In Italy and some other regions, coiled black pipes are also used to concentrate heat. A parabolic mirror to concentrate solar radiations and then direct them to the collectors makes solar heating very efficient and usable for large‐scale industrial heating also.
Two types of solar heaters are passive and active solar heaters. In the former, the hot water storage tank sits at the bottom of the collectors and water is circulated using a pump. In the latter there isn't a pump and water flows passively and enters the tank, which is at the top of the collectors because of convection.
Water may be heated in these systems directly as it passes through the collectors or indirectly by heat transfer fluid (containing anti‐freeze) flowing through the collectors. Passive direct heating systems are more suitable for use in warmer climates where water won't tend to freeze in the pipes of the collector. Build it yourself and save! Sale price on instruction manual with bonuses!
Scott Rodgers is a noted writer who has been providing great advice on plumbing works all over the country. His splendid knowledge has, in fact, sparked significant rise in revenue for talented plumbers across the nation, from Schenectady Plumbers (Need one? click here) to Casa Grande Plumbers (Need one? click here!).
