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Solar power has been more popularly known for using the sun’s energy to produce electricity. The sun’s energy, however, has been used far longer for heating water and homes than for generating electricity.

Solar Power for Water Heating

The hot water heating system consists of a holding tank, a solar collector and some way to circulate the water. The hot water heating system could either be a direct system or an indirect one.

In the direct system, the water that flows through the collector is heated. In the indirect system, the fluid heated in the collector is passed through a heat exchanger in the holding tank, thereby heating the potable water in the tank. The holding tank merely holds the water that has been heated, or is being heated.

The solar collector, which is usually located on the top of the roof, is the part that heats the water. Normally, the collector is a thin rectangular box, which has a series of pipes, painted black for maximum heat absorption, running through it. The water that runs through these pipes gets heated.

For water circulation, there is either a low powered pump, or it is achieved through convection, where the hot water rises and the cold water sinks down. To achieve circulation through convection, the holding tank is placed above the collector, so that the water rises into the holding tank, as it heats up, and the cold water sinks down to be heated. Alternately, a low powered pump is used to circulate the water.

Heating your water for domestic purposes, through solar power, makes sense, as it is available all year round. This saves you utility cost on water heating, which on an average is 40% of the total household utility cost.

Solar Power for Building Heating

The sun, naturally, heats up buildings. It can also be done by special building design, or by the use of solar collectors. Passive solar heating is when a building is specially designed to capture the suns heat. It involves the use of special materials in the floors and walls of the building to store the sun’s heat.

The building is designed with many windows facing in the sun’s direction. This means that in the northern hemisphere the windows are south facing, and in the southern hemisphere, they are north facing.

Where a solar collector is used, the air is passed through it to heat it, and then the heated air is passed into the house. The solar collector is also used to heat a fluid, which is then passed through the pipes, which are often laid under the floor of the house, heating it.