The Basics Of Solar Hot Water Panels

With the push towards greener energy solutions today the need for cheap, viable options are
always in demand. That's why solar hot water panels are such a good choice for green,
Eco-friendly options to heating water for your home.

Well how does a this device work? Of course we know that the sun is the source for the
panel's energy and right away we know how efficient this can be.

The solar panel itself is most often placed on a roof to get the maximum exposure to the
sun's rays. Then water is passed through pipes in the collector, either by actively being
pumped through or passively, or natural convection.

The collector itself is made of glass topped insulated box with a bottom painted black to
better absorb the sun's rays. The heated water in the tubes that pass through the collector
is often the water stored in hot water tank that is held in reserve for bad weather.

This is only a basic overview as there are many different variations of this process being
used in thermal water heaters. For residential systems, there are three of note. They are
the flat-plate, integral collector-storage(ICS), and evacuated-tube collectors.

Flat-plate collectors are typically similar to that which was described above. An ICS system
uses cold water that is pumped through the collector to preheat the working fluid which is
then piped to the storage tank.

In a system using evacuated-tube collectors, parallel rows of glass tubes, each containing
a metal tube which is what absorbs the heat, are placed together to catch the sun's rays. The
solar energy heats up the metal rod and the air in the glass tube is evacuated creating a vacuum.
This vacuum eliminates heat loss and increases the efficiency of the collector. All the heat
collected by this system s again transferred to a storage facility.

Solar Hot Water Panels Basics

The Basics Of Solar Hot Water Panels: