Solar Heating Panels

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Solar panels are devices that convert light into electricity. It is a collection of solar cells. Lots of small solar cells spread over a large area can work together to provide enough power to be useful. The more light that hits a cell, the more electricity it produces. Solar panels are typically constructed with cystalline silicon, which is used in other industries (such as the microprocessor industry), and gallium arsenide, which is produced exclusively for use in photovoltaic (solar) cells.

Walk into a modern home today you will see that there is a lot of energy needed. All this energy is needed to keep your house warm and use all the electric equipment or just to shower with warm water. The modern home needs and uses lots of energy and the costs are high. The energy demand is increasing every day world wide and energy prices are rising. For energy plants it is hard to keep up with the increasing demand and this will have its effects for the consumer. It has already happened in states like California where energy demands could not be met and total chaos was the result.

The answer can be found in alternatives for traditional energy sources. One of the alternatives is solar power. The advantage with this source of energy is that it can be used by a single household through individual systems. The generated energy can be used to complement the traditional hot water supply, if you live in area where sunlight is in abundance it can be substitute the whole traditional electric supply. In many places, including the United States, a solar heating system can give a satisfactorily high percentage (usually between 50 to 75 percent) of domestic hot water energy. In northern European countries, combined hot water and space heating systems can produce 15 to 25 percent of home heating energy. These percentages up to 75% can make a huge difference on your monthly bill.

Solar heating system uses the energy of sunlight to provide heat on a certain structure. It can be used to heat water (either for shower or for washing) or a swimming pool, or to supply heat for a heating circuit (usually radiators or floor heating coils) that makes inside the house warm.

A solar heating system generally consists of the following components:

- A solar heating panel- this panel collects the sunlight that will be converted into thermal energy;
- A fluid system- it transports the converted energy from the panel to its point of usage; and
- Heat reservoir- this stores some of the heat produced for subsequent use.

However, this article will be focusing on the first component, which is the solar heating panel.

Solar Heating Panel in Work

Solar heating panels (SHP) are collections of solar cells and solar thermal collectors that are used primarily to capture energy from the sun. It is quite distinctive to the solar panels (SP) in the sense that the latter is used to provide electricity to the structure. However, SP and SHP have the same function in capturing energy from sunlight.

SHP works by placing it on direct sunlight, preferably on the roof of your house, or on a wall facing the sun. It has solar cells which will convert solar energy into thermal energy, and solar thermal collectors which have a set of metal tubes surrounded by a glass cylinder. It has also a parabolic mirror to concentrate the sunlight on the tube.

The heat that is generated will be stored in a hot water container that will be the source for hot water in case of cold weather condition. For home heating purposes, that hot water container is connected to an internal radiator or floor heating coils that will provide heat inside the house.

The usage of the SHP can really make a difference in the warm comfort in various homes. The usage of warm water and the heating of your home with these panels can really make a difference in your monthly bill. This really depends on the place you live on this beautiful planet. Using this system will not only reduce your energy cost but will keep this planet a beautiful place to live in.

Click here to access a manual with step by step instructions, even for a new user, to build solar powered electricity to power your home.

GREEN ENERGY

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Green or renewable energy is a term used to describe energy that is derived from resources, like the sun and wind — resources that are continually available to some degree or other all over the world. We never run out of them. And their use or capture does not inflict any material damage on the environment.

Sunlight is the source of most renewable energy power, either directly or indirectly. The sun can be harnessed to produce solar energy electricity for heating, cooling, and lighting homes, offices, entertainment complexes, airports, and a variety of other industrial structures.

Heat from the sun also produces wind, whose energy is captured by wind turbines and turned into electricity capable of powering entire towns.

In recent years one simple fact is coming to light. No matter how you look at it, our society simply can’t continue to rely on fossil fuels for energy. Pollution is on the rise and already some of the effects to our planet are irreversible. As a whole we simply don’t have enough resources to maintain the level at which we use them. That’s really just the beginning though. 

There’s also the simple fact that rising energy costs are making it harder to keep up in our society. Power for our homes (and businesses) costs more than ever before. Gas prices are on the rise. And, the heating oil and natural gas which we use to keep our homes warm also costs more. When you begin to add these things up, living in our world today also becomes quite pricey.

With the current state of technology more and more people are looking for alternatives. Of course the alternative energy sources are out there, and they have been for a while, but traditionally these types of energy alternatives have been out of the price range that most of us are willing to spend.

Today that idea no longer holds true. Converting to green energy costs less than ever before, and if you know how you can almost do it for free. The parts required cost less, and governments are pushing green initiatives more now than ever before.

There are three main types of renewable energy that are currently being used to power our homes and there are a couple of other energy sources that you may have heard about. Solar and Wind power are the most common types of alternative energy. These are the two technologies that have advanced enough that it is now possible to convert your home yourself. There are also ideas like Hydro-Electricity and Geo Thermal power. In the case of hydro, location prevents this from being a viable option for most people (you would need to live beside a stream or river). Geo thermal energy is currently an expensive technology and again location matters so it isn’t a viable option for most people. This article will pay attention to solar and wind power as a source of green energy to power homes.

Solar power is the conversion of sunlight into electricity, either directly using photovoltaics (PV), or indirectly using concentrated solar power (CSP). Concentrated solar power systems use lenses or mirrors and tracking systems to focus a large area of sunlight into a small beam. Photovoltaics convert light into electric current using the photoelectric effect.

On an average day, the sun shines at a rate of 1000Watts per square meter. Collecting that energy is as simple as placing a photovoltaic cell to collect sunlight. These solar cells are simple devices that include a semiconductor (most commonly silicon) to convert the sun’s light directly into electricity.

Put simply – the sun shines on a photovoltaic cell. Inside that cell there is a semiconductor. The semiconductor absorbs a portion of that light and the electrons in the semiconductor get knocked loose and are then able to flow freely. Once this happens the electricity can be stored and then used to power electrical devices. 

Solar cells are used in a series to create a solar panel, and usually those solar panels are used in groups to enable the collection of large amounts of solar energy at once. In a nutshell this is how solar energy works and it is the most common option for gaining free energy to power our homes.

Wind power on the other hand, is the conversion of wind energy into a useful form of energy, such as using wind turbines to make electricity, windmills for mechanical power, windpumps for water pumping or drainage, or sails to propel ships.

Wind power, as an alternative to fossil fuels, is plentiful, renewable, widely distributed, clean, and produces no greenhouse gas emissions during operation.

For our purposes, depending on your energy needs, a single windmill may be enough to power your entire home. The best part about using this option for power is that a windmill is cheap to build, and there is very little maintenance after you have it working. 

Of course this type of home conversions will require more space than solar panels which can be mounted on your roof. Even if you live in an area where you have enough wind to consider this alternative – you should check your local laws to ensure that you are allowed to install a windmill.

Click here for a step by step manual on building and installing solar panels to power your homes and offices.