Sealing Off A Crack

Before you install solar panels, you need to perform an energy audit.

This serves a two-fold purpose – to determine the size of your solar power generator and to identify sources of energy wastage that can be avoided.

As you are doing your household energy audit, it is useful to check for air leaks. They account for as much as 5 to 30 percent of your energy wastage (when it comes to heating).

If your windows and doors are closed and you feel an air draft, you have a good chance of cutting down wastage simply by plugging the leaks.

The best time to test for air leaks is when it’s cold outside and warm inside. You can feel cold air quite easily this way.

A pressure test can quickly surface any leakages around your house. All you have to do is close your doors and windows, turn off all heaters and turn on your exhaust fans to full blast.

In this way, the pressure inside your house is slightly lower than the outside. Thus more air will flow through those leakages to equalize the difference in pressure.

Go around the house and look for leaks. Pay more attention to windows, doors, electrical outlets, switches, hatches and joints. Once you find a leak, mark them out immediately.

Before you seal off those leaks, you have to turn off the exhaust fans.

You can use transparent silicon caulk to plug all your air leakages. The best way to handle this is to use a caulking gun that has a pressure relief gasket. This allows good control of silicon flow as you plug those leaks.

Another way to plug air leaks is to use an aerosol can of expandable insulation. This is difficult to use, initially, as it is hard to control its flow. But it works very well. So if it’s your first time using this, get some practice on used magazines.

There may be several places that leak air. Windows and doors are easy to handle. But if you have to climb up to your roof, remember to take precaution so you won’t risk falling.

After you’re done plugging up the leaks, repeat the pressure test. Then mark out those areas you have to work on again and get cracking.

You can also check for leaks outdoor. Most often, they appear in cracks, around faucets, pipes, electrical wiring and electrical outlets. Unfortunately there is no way you can feel for air leaks outside your house.

The only way to handle this is to do a visual inspection. If you suspect a leak, give that area a touch of silicon caulk.

After you are done plugging all your air leaks, your heating system can be more efficient. Thus your indoor temperature can be maintained using less energy.

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2. Sizing Your Solar Energy Panels – Part 3
3. 7 Different Ways of Using Solar Energy At Home and In Your Office

There are many solar water-heating systems in the market, yet only a few designs are worth considering. We’ll take a look at them here…

1. The integral collector system (ICS). The ICS is a simple construction with no internal pump. It is also the cheapest among the systems mentioned.

This system is connected between the cold water outlet and water heater. It forms a 2-step heating process. Cold water is first heated up by the ICS. If the water is not hot enough, your electrical water heater contributes more heat to get water to its required temperature.

The ICS allows water to retain in the collector and this can cause damage if water freezes. (Thus you must drain its water before freezing occurs on cold days.)

This system can only be used in mild climates when temperature doesn’t drop below freezing point. Even though large collectors have the ability to withstand these conditions, they are not encouraged to. This is because collector damage is expensive. There is no point to take such risks…

2. The drainback system. This is a system to ensure that your collectors and loop piping doesn’t get damaged due to freezing. It drains water from the collector when it is not absorbing heat.

Each time the pump shuts off, water in the collectors and piping drains into an insulated reservoir tank. There is often a sight glass at the drain-back reservoir to indicate if all the water has flowed out from the collectors. If it hasn’t, a slight tilt at the collector will help.

The drainback system uses a heat exchanger to heat up water in the solar tank. Distilled water is commonly used as its heat-transfer medium. This is because it is affordable, safe and prevents possible mineral buildup within the system.

3. Closed-loop antifreeze system. This system is the best at preventing damages due to freezing. However the anti-freeze solution occasionally breaks down and becomes corrosive if the weather gets extremely hot.

Because it works well in almost any climate, this is one of the most popular solar water heaters used today. They happen to be the most expensive too.

Closed-loop antifreeze systems require an expansion tank. It accommodates the expansion of the antifreeze as it heats up during normal use. This prevents high internal pressure from tearing the system apart. When pressure drops, antifreeze flows out from the expansion tank to equalize the pressure.

A small electric pump propels the antifreeze through a heat exchanger, heating water inside the hot water tank. The antifreeze needs to be replaced occasionally through a fill valve when it expires.

There are other types of solar water heating systems in the market. These are not as popular, but can still be found in some homes. Some of them include the Recirculation System, the Thermosiphon System and the Open-Loop Flooded System.

After understanding the type of common solar water heating systems, you in a  position to decide which one is most suitable for you.

To start off, ask yourself these questions:

1. Do you need your solar water heater to work in freezing climate?

Climate is perhaps the most important factor in deciding which system to choose. If you are living in freezing conditions, try out a closed-loop antifreeze system. Although it requires a little maintenance, it beats having to clean up burst pipes and damaged collectors.

If freezing is not a common occurrence where you live, any other system works fine. You just have to remember to drain water from the collectors frequently. If you locate your drain valves in easily accessible places, this shouldn’t be a problem.

2. Are you exposed to high-temperature conditions?

Some systems (like the ICS) may burst if the water inside boils. You can add a pressure-release valve to prevent this from happening, or let the hot water faucet drip into your hot tub whenever the weather gets really hot.

3. How much hot water do you need?

Water heaters are rated in terms of BTUs. This is the same for collectors. If you need more hot water, you’ll have to get bigger systems.

Generally, any solar water heater system can replace most of the heat supplied by electrical heaters.

Of course there will be days when it’s cloudy and you cannot get enough heat from the sun. Yet on most days, a solar water heater can help you cut your power usage significantly.

Continue Reading:

1. What Are Solar Heaters, How They Work And What They Are Used For
2. What You Need to Know about Solar Water Heaters
3. 7 Different Ways of Using Solar Energy At Home and In Your Office

Inside, you’ll find out how to:

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1. About
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3. What Are Solar Heaters, How They Work And What They Are Used For

While you are working on your solar panels or solar heaters, you can also explore other small projects that can make your house a better place to live in.

Here are some projects that take you less than a day to implement. And many of them are very helpful in lowering your energy bills as well.

Most of them do not cost more than $100+, so if you have a little time and a little cash, you can begin right away:

1. Install solar screens

Solar screens help to keep your house cool during summer. It prevents heat from coming into your house through the windows. As such, your air-conditioners will not need to work as hard.

Most solar screens are quite affordable. The best ones are those with a metallic, reflective surface. They reflect radiation away instead of absorbing it. They are also pretty durable.

2. Solar ventilators

Ventilators can be installed at your attic, powered by solar energy. During summer, you can activate these fans to pump the heat out of your interior. This alone can cool your house considerably.

All you need is a small fan, a small vent that comes with a cover and a small solar panel. You don’t even need rechargeable batteries. It stops working when it becomes dark, but you won’t need it at night.

Try it.

When the weather gets colder, remember to cover them properly so heat doesn’t escape through these vents.

3. Solar powered air circulation

When you heat up your house, warm air rises to the top. They are all trapped at the ceiling or attic. Heat is not distributed evenly. You can install a ceiling fan to push the heat down, or use solar power to pump warm air down to ground level.

The effect: Your home warms us faster and you’ll feel more comfortable.

For this project, you’ll need a small solar panel, a set of rechargeable batteries, a long pipe and a small exhaust fan.

4. Landscaping

Planting trees, scrubs and bushes around your house can give you many benefits. You will not only create a beautiful and rejuvenating environment… You can prevent bitter cold winds from blowing against your house in winter and shelter your house from strong sunshine during summer.

5. Install solar light tubes

Solar light tubes allow natural light to enter your house while keeping the heat and precipitation out. They cost a little more. But you can experience the benefits of full spectrum lighting in your room without expensive illumination technology.

Continue Reading:

1. 7 Different Ways of Using Solar Energy At Home and In Your Office
2. Challenges and Difficulties In Using Solar Panels And How To Overcome Them
3. Survey Your Household Energy Usage Before Installing Solar Panels

A simple solar heater consists of one (or a set) of solar collectors and a pump to run water or air through the solar collector. More complicated (and larger) designs will consist of a heat exchanger and an insulated water tank to store heated water.

Solar water heaters essentially have the same design as a solar space heater. The difference is the medium that flows through the solar collectors. One is water while the other is air.

The big advantage that solar water heaters and solar space heaters have over solar (photovoltaic) panels is its efficiency and its cost. As solar heaters are much more efficient and much cheaper than photovoltaic (PV) panels, you should consider installing them before spending a cent on PV panels. Ideally.

Solar water heaters are becoming more and more common because they are practical, affordable and are easy to install. Even if you are living in areas of low geographical latitudes, you can easily collect hot water with temperatures up to 60°C.

The most common types of solar water heaters are evacuated tube collectors. These heaters have the best efficiency. With better efficiency, the area needed for solar collectors can be smaller. Thus much space can be saved for other applications…like a photovoltaic panel. Glazed flat plate collectors are popular for domestic hot water applications. Unglazed plastic collectors are generally used to heat swimming pools.

You have no excuse not to own a solar water heater.

If cost is an issue, you can construct your own solar water heater using a wooden frame, a piece of corrugated zinc, lengths of flexible copper tubing, a piece of transparent perspex and some black paint. Costs you less than $50. Water running through the copper tubing can be easily heated by 25°C if you get your design right.

As light enters through the transparent Perspex, it remains trapped within the wooden box because of greenhouse effect. Since everything within the box is painted black, heat absorption is at its maximum. As water flows through the copper tubing, it is heated by conduction.

A simple solar collect like this can be constructed within half a day, so there is no reason why anyone should not be using a solar water heater.

Continue Reading:

1. Installing Solar Water Heaters
2. What You Need to Know about Solar Water Heaters
3. 7 Different Ways of Using Solar Energy At Home and In Your Office

In fact, solar water heaters can lead to greater savings at home or in your organization. Solar energy is found in abundance. It is also free. Thus the initial investment quickly pays for itself and yields significant long-term savings. This is because a large proportion of electricity that was used for heating is no longer needed.

In addition to cost savings, solar water heaters can reduce your carbon footprint. Conventional water heaters use electricity generated from power stations. These installations burn fossil fuel or use nuclear radiation to produce electricity. This results in pollution in one form or another.

Before you decide to buy and install a solar water heating system in your home or workplace, you should check the Solar Radiation Resource Map. You need to know the solar radiation intensity at your installation site through different months of the year. With this, you can calculate the size of your solar collector and plan its orientation.

To get maximum efficiency from your solar water heater, you have to place it at an unshaded location. The solar collector should also be tilted toward the solar path. At noon, the collector should face the sun squarely. Through the season, solar path changes. Thus it is advisable to adjust the panel’s tilt angle and orientation in order to maintain maximum efficiency.

You have a choice between 2 kinds of solar water heaters: passive solar water heaters and active solar water heaters. There are advantages and disadvantages inherent in each system. You contractor should be able to show you the difference and recommend suitable system for you, according to your specific needs.

When you choose a solar energy panel, you should also consider important factors like system costs, local codes, covenants and regulations.

Before you purchase your solar water heater, it’s advisable to check its certification with the Solar Rating & Certification Corporation. This is a non-profit organization that provides performance ratings and certifications for solar thermal products. You should also check the warranty period and coverage.

Finally ask the contractor if the manufacturer is easily accessible. Find out whether parts are freely available. These guidelines will help ensure you pick the right solar thermal product for your need.

Continue Reading:

1. Installing Solar Water Heaters
2. What Are Solar Heaters, How They Work And What They Are Used For
3. The Importance Of Heat Transfer In Solar Water Heaters

If you’re living in the northern hemisphere, your solar collectors should be tilted southward. The tilt angle is 15 degrees plus the latitude of the installation site. This is the ideal configuration that allows you to collect maximum sunlight all year round. For example, Arizona has latitude of 33 degrees. Therefore the tilt angle of your panel should be 48 degrees in order for it to harness maximum energy.

But many homeowners choose to conform the tilt angle to the inclination of their roof. They are concerned about the aesthetics of the installation. Although we will not achieve an optimized configuration in an engineering point of view, such setup serves the user’s needs and wants after all.

Fortunately, solar collectors with tilt variations that fall within 20 degrees (either direction) will not suffer serious loss. In fact, tilting them some 15 degrees northward from its optimum angle can have its advantages. During summer, water will not overheat and during winter more hot water is produced.

Similarly, tilting your heat collectors southward (away from the optimum tilt angle) can result in more overheating during summer and less hot water during winter. Ideally, the tilt angle can be adjusted according to the seasons. But the hardware required to implement this setup may end up as an ugly structure of metal and joints that displease homeowners. There will also be more moving parts to be maintained.

When orientating your heat collectors, you should ideally point them to true south. As compared to photovoltaic panels, heat collectors are more forgiving. Orientations of 15 degrees off true south still enable solar collectors to receive most of the solar energy. Beyond this tolerance, the effectiveness of the heat collector decays quickly.

You may often be forced to make a choice between an east-biased or west-biased orientation away from true south. Perfect orientations tend to be impractical at times. If you’re in this fix, choose the west so heat collectors can be exposed to more heat as a result of higher ambient temperatures in the afternoons.

As you line up your compass to find true south, remember that it is pointing to magnetic south instead. Corrections must be made to locate the optimum orientation. To do this, you need to compensate for the magnetic declination of your site.

Finally, as you are evaluating the installation site, remember that shadows cause your heat collectors to be drastically less efficient. Although solar water heaters are not as sensitive to shading, it is good to place them in an open, unobstructed location from 9am to 3pm so they can be exposed to the maximum amount of sunshine during this critical period. Using a standard shade analysis tool like a solar pathfinder, you can make it easier for yourself to evaluate the shading condition of your location.

Continue Reading:

1. Solar Panel Efficiency
2. What Are Solar Heaters, How They Work And What They Are Used For
3. What You Need to Know about Solar Water Heaters

Instead of wasting energy trying to keep your pool warm, you can make use of solar energy, which can be found abundantly.

You can buy solar collectors from retailers, use a solar pool cover or make your own solar collectors. Either of these works well.

Here, we’ll show you how to make a simple homemade solar collector that can harness energy from the sun.

What you’ll need is as follows:

1. Submersible pump
2. Solar (PV) panel
3. Black PVC pipe
4. Rubber hose
5. Wooden frame
6. Black paint

You can place your solar pool heater on your rooftop or beside your swimming pool.

If you place your solar collector on your roof, you need to make sure there is enough structural support so your roof doesn’t collapse. You’ll also need to make sure your submersible pump has enough head pressure to transport water all the way to where your solar collector is positioned.

For maximum efficiency, you need to tilt your solar collector southward. As long as there is no shading, it can also be tilted toward southeast or southwest  (up to 45 degrees) without serious performance degradation.

Having chosen a location, you can now determine how big your solar collector must be. This depends on the size of your pool. For the sake of simplicity, you can build your first panel and see if it serves you well. If it isn’t sufficient to heat up your pool, just build another one.

First, you’ll need a frame or a board to hold the PVC pipes in place. This is for good organization…

Next, snake the PVC pipes on the inside surface of the frame by using u-joints. When this is done, cover every inch of the PVC pipe surface with black paint. This will ensure maximum solar energy absorption. With this, more heat can then be transferred to the water flowing through it.

To increase the efficiency of solar collectors, you may want to cover the frame with a piece of glass. This prevents heat loss through natural convection as wind blows over it.

In some areas, freezing may occur at night and during cold seasons. So it’ll probably be good to have a drain valve to empty the water inside the PVC pipes. This prevents damage.

After the solar collector is completed, you will have to cut the flexible hose to appropriate lengths and connect them between the submersible pump and solar collector.

Finally, hook up the 12-volt PV panel to the submersible pump to get the solar pool heater working. For this application, we’ll not need rechargeable batteries since the pool heater cannot work when there is insufficient sunlight.

Notes:

• To prevent evaporative heat loss, you can use a pool cover or a solar pool cover. They are affordable and will help you conserve a lot of energy.

• Solar pool heaters, even homemade ones, can last for more than a decade with proper care. To maintain it, drain the pipes when not in use so they do not burst due to freezing. This prevents algae and bacteria growth too.

Continue Reading:

1. Pool Solar Panels
2. What Are Solar Heaters, How They Work And What They Are Used For
3. 7 Different Ways of Using Solar Energy At Home and In Your Office

Some folks put their solar oven beside the barbecue pit to keep cooked food warm. You can even use it to keep your beverage hot or to toast pieces of bread. How you use it is up to your imagination.

The things you need are as follows:

1. A wooden box

2. Black construction paper

3. 4 pieces of aluminum reflectors

4. Small black stones

5. A piece of glass

We’ll start with the wooden box. First, you need to line the inside of the wooden box with black construction paper. Black color will help absorb as much heat as possible from the sun.

A Solar Oven

Then we’ll cut the aluminum reflectors to fit the length and breadth of the wooden box.

After cutting, you’ll have to use a small file or sandpaper to remove burrs from the edges. You can also round the corners so they won’t be sharp.

Next, you’ll have to attach these aluminum reflectors to the side of the box. You can do this by using small hinges or simply by screwing the aluminum to the box and bending it to the angle you want.

(The aluminum reflectors concentrate solar energy into the wooden box where food is cooked.)

As soon as this is done, you may want to cut a piece of glass that fits the top of the wooden box. Glass allows sunlight into the box. But after sunlight is converted into heat energy, it remains trapped within the box. This setup is like a greenhouse that traps heat within its interior for plants to flourish.

Finally, put the stones at the bottom of the wooden box. These stones store heat energy and they help to regulate the temperature within the box. Even after you put the solar oven in the shade, the stones will still give out heat and keep your food warm.

Notes:

• Preheating the oven takes about 15 to 30 minutes, depending on how strong the sun is. Solar cookers are best for preparing food that doesn’t require high temperature and can be cooked slowly.

• When using the solar oven, you may want to tilt it southward to catch more sunlight.

• On the inside of the solar oven, use only non-toxic material like construction paper. Black paint is effective, but most of them emit harmful elements when heated.

• If you want to make a large solar oven, you can line the bottom with dark-colored bricks. Such materials can store lots of heat energy and can withstand high temperature.

Continue Reading:

1. Pool Solar Panels
2. Home Solar Power — Different Ways of Harnessing Energy From The Sun To Reduce Energy Bills
3. 7 Different Ways of Using Solar Energy At Home and In Your Office

We’ll cover both topics here.

Simple Pool Solar Water Heater

A simple pool solar water heater includes a pump, controller, filter and PVC pipes to route the water flow. To increase the heating, you have to increase the water flowing into the solar collector.

You can do this by turning a valve that channels more water through the solar heater. When the valve is closed, water runs entirely through the solar heater.

When it is open, little water flows through the solar water heater due to its high water resistance. (Water, like electricity, prefers the easier path to flow through.)

By adjusting the valve, you can control how much heat you will introduce into your swimming pool.

Pool solar water heaters are much cheaper than PV panels. While the latter requires thousands of dollars to install, solar heaters only require a few hundred dollars for a good system.

People commonly ask what type (and size) of solar collectors they should get. This can be determined by going through a few questions:

1. How long is your pump’s running time?

If your pool filter is turned on for a long time, you have more opportunity to introduce heat into your pool. The converse is also true. Thus if you intend to run your pump for many hours a day, you can get a smaller-sized solar collector.

2. How is your pool installed?

Some pools are installed above the ground. These pools lose heat at a much faster rate. Thus you’ll need large solar heaters to compensate for the heat loss.

3. How will you install your solar collectors?

There are different ways of installing your solar collectors. Often, aesthetics and efficiency do not coexist. Solar collectors mounted flushed to the ground do not get as much sunlight as those tilted towards the sun.

4. How much sunlight do you get?

This depends on your location. Shading also affects how much sunshine you receive at your pool and at your solar collector. You may want to clear some branches or find a sunny spot to place your solar collectors.

5. How much wind do you experience?

Wind removes heat from your swimming pool. For open ICS solar collectors, even heat collected at the solar heater is taken away. So if you experience strong wind at your area, these are what you can do:

-    Increase the solar collector size

-    Use a glazed solar collector

-    Plant bushes around your pool and solar collector to break up the wind flow

-    Increase the daily pump time through the pool solar heater

While installing your pool solar water heaters, you will want as much value out of it as possible. This can be achieved by improving its efficiency.

Here are some tips that you may find helpful:

1. Run the pool solar heater during the sunniest time of the day.

Running water through solar collectors drain energy. You may not need to heat up your pool throughout the day. Conserve energy by heating your pool during the sunniest time of the day. You can continue running it till the evening if you want to.

Keep experimenting… After a while, you’ll find the optimum period to run your solar heater.

2. Use a pool cover

Your solar heater can be 50% more effective when you use a pool cover to retain its heat. If you use a solar pool cover, it will also help introduce more heat into the pool.

3. Connect solar collectors in parallel

Connecting solar collectors in series increase the water resistance and makes your pool pump work harder. Connecting them in parallel cuts the resistance in half. This helps to save electricity.

Continue Reading:

1. Installing Solar Water Heaters
2. What Are Solar Heaters, How They Work And What They Are Used For
3. Heating Up Your Swimming Pool Using Solar Energy