Solar Power Home

The sun created life on the earth and the home is what gave it impetus to flourish. We call this home as mother earth, blue planet or the solar home.
We call it the solar home because it feeds the habitat inside with the energy from the sun. But is this concept of solar home limited to this “big picture”?
Can this “big picture” of a solar home be broken down into its pixels and used in every household for performing day to day activities?
After much deliberation we finally have a positive answer.
The solar home is not only a macroscopic variable defining the parameters of life but is also a microscopic one helping live life with ease.

Mainly there are two types of solar home:

1. Passive solar home [PSH] –

In this type of solar home the whole house is itself involved in the generation of heat [a form of energy].its efficiency is based on the architecture of the house and the positions of windows and type of flooring. The sunlight entering through the windows gets absorbed by the floor and the inner walls of the house. Thus the whole atmosphere in the house gets heated and when required, dark and thick curtains can be drawn at night to avoid escape of heat. More than 50% of the incident solar energy is converted to heat.
Sometimes certain fans are used to ensure good and healthy circulation of heat.
These houses become very comfortable and pleasant places to live in.

2. Active solar home [ASH] –

Unlike a PSH these homes use equipment for heating such as pumps, collectors, storage equipment etc.
Active systems use special collectors for propagation of heat. Huge crates covered with glass in a special manner reflect maximum sunlight into the area of the collector containing metal plates of dark colors which absorb the sunlight to produce heat. (Black color absorbs more sunlight than any other color.)
Pumps are used to send fluids to these collectors where they get heated. Then these fluids are distributed in the homes using the same pumps. They work just like a furnace system. The remaining hot fluids are stored in special storage equipment and used as and when desired. These equipments come in handy during cloudy days and cold nights. The collectors are generally placed on the roofs of the solar home to gain maximum incident solar energy.

There are different ways in which the heat generated during the energy conversion processes can be used. They can be used for heating water or cooking food. They can also be used to heat up the water in the swimming pool or Jacuzzi. They save the electrical energy or conventional sources of fuel energy needed to perform such operations and are as efficient as these sources of energy.

Its main advantage is that it’s a pollution free source of energy and doesn’t face a threat of extinction for at least thousands of years to come.
Thus a solar home does not only save energy but utilizes it resourcefully thus benefiting all of mankind and the nature around us.