Heating Your Home with Solar Energy
Our homes use a lot of energy for heating. Various home applications like washing, boiling, cooking, bathing and warming the air are the most recognizable needs we employ on a daily basis, and many homes utilize fossil fuels – typically non-renewable – for these applications. Solar heating is a worthy consideration over the fossil fuel option. Solar is inexpensive, renewable, sustainable, and helps in reducing our carbon output, which is harmful to the earth’s environment. One of the great conveniences of using solar is that it can be installed not only on the roof but also on the outer walls of the house, especially the south side - also known as the “solar window” - where there is a lot of sun.
There are four types of solar heating: passive solar heating, which encompasses building-integrated and sunspace systems; and active solar heating, which encompasses solar air heater and solar radiant heat.
The main factor involved in the effectiveness of solar heating is the weather: the cloudier the sky, the less effective solar heating is. Hence, the choice of solar heating will be dependent on the weather conditions that are typical for your living environment; the temperature outside compared to that inside the home.
Other factors which may affect your choice of solar heating system are cost, aesthetics, resident involvement, personal preference and ease of retrofit. Passive solar heating works best when the home is well insulated to prevent heat loss and when the involvement of the resident can be assured, as shutters must be closed or opened according to the availability of the sunlight. The homeowner may choose to add on a sunspace to allow for more sun to come through the solar heating system. On the other hand, active solar heating does not require much homeowner involvement since the heat is regulated by thermostats or other control devices, such as collectors. However, collectors have moving parts that are subject to wear and tear and blockage or breakage, which lower efficiency. Homeowner involvement is key to this system as well, if only for regularly scheduled checks and repairs to the system.
Both active and passive solar heating systems employ different methods of heating your home; they can use conduction, convection or radiation methods for transferring heat from the sun to your home. It is therefore important to understand not only how much sun you will be receiving, but while using solar heating, you will need to be sure that your equipment is properly secured and is facing in the right direction and at proper angles for the best capturing of the sun’s heat.
In conclusion, passive solar heating is ideal when installed in places where you can gather the sun’s energy when you need it most (as in winter), and can still block the sun when you do not want as much of its heating energy (as in summer). A home with south-facing windows equipped with shutters and awnings would be ideal for the installation of passive solar heating. Conversely, homes that have high rooftops