Slide presentation - Quick Overview of
Domestic Solar
Water Heating
Why solar water heating?
How does solar water heating work?
System Development & Testing
Download from NRCAN
- Solar Water Heating Systems : A Buyer's Guide (21 pages / 353 KB)
Why solar water heating?
- It cuts water heating costs by at least 50%
or more
- It reduces the impact of rising electricity
and natural gas prices
- Using green renewable energy becomes a more
affordable option, allowing homeowners to save money while helping out with
the environment
- Greenhouse emissions such as CO2 are reduced
by approx. 2 tons per year! That's a lot of CO2 saved per year by each
home, making it an ideal environmental
solution.
- Solar water heating with the system we
recommend, requires little maintenance - approx. every 3 years
- Heating water with solar energy works
- Snow does not bother the solar thermal
panels used. The system works year round. In the summer, 65% of
water heating energy costs are saved, and in the winter 35%, resulting in
average year round saving of 50%.
- Great payback (8-10 years) - Water heating
costs are roughly 20% of your energy bill, which means approx 10% of your
energy bill can be saved by using a solar water heating system. This is
a payback along the lines of new energy efficient windows.
- Complements your existing water heating
system be it natural gas, electric or propane hot water service. It does not replace it.
- The
appliance does not affect the quantity of hot water produced or the speed at
which cold water is heated.
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How does solar water heating work?
- Solar
energy, in the form of heat, is collected by solar absorbers mounted on a
roof, fence, or the ground and transferred through a heat exchanger to your
potable hot water.
- The solar
absorbers (panels), (4 ft. x 8 ft. x 1½ in.) resembling thin skylights, are
mounted on your roof, fence, or a ground mounted rack. The solar panels
contain a fluid that is food grade propylene glycol that does not freeze and
provides high performance heat transfer. The fluid is circulated in
the panel which gets heated, which then goes through a flexible fluid line
that runs from the roof to the heat exchange tank and transfers the heat to
the water and is then sent back to the panel to get heated up. The
existing hot water tank(s) then top up the heat if necessary.
- The pump circulating the fluid is a 15W
pump run by a small panel.
- The heat exchanger is a stainless steel,
brazed plate design, manufactured to ISO 9000 standards, developed
specifically for potable water systems.
- Owners
with natural gas or propane hot water tanks, or people with heavy hot water
use will require a two-tank installation for extra hot water storage.
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System Development & Testing
The recommended solar hot water system has been
developed and tested with the participation of Natural Resources Canada, Queen's
University Solar Calorimetric Laboratory, Fraunhofer USA, and leading component
manufacturers. Development models have been operating at Queen's
University since 1998.
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