Active Solar Space Heating – What are Your Options?

While passive space heating is widely regarded as the most cost effective form of heating through solar power, it can’t detract from the advantages of active solar space heating. In an ideal world, all of our homes can be made to the passive design but the quality and variety of building materials available, as well as the era in which your home or office was constructed, ensures that not all buildings are. Redesigning can be pricey, so the active option is often the most suitable.

But what options are available to you if you wish to turn to active solar space heating to heat your home? Firstly, you should know that the only real difference between ‘active’ and ‘passive’ solar space heating is the fact that ‘active’ systems make use of mechanical devices to distribute heat, such as fans or blowers.

Remember too that solar space heating works on the principles of thermal movement, which means that even the solar collector is not the same design as your regular sunshine-to-electricity panels.

There are two general types of active solar space heaters: liquid-based systems and air-based systems.

Liquid-based systems use a liquid to transfer heat from the sun to the room or location that needs to be heated. In this type of system, the liquid (usually a mixture of water and anti-freeze) is pumped through the solar collector where it is heated. That fluid makes its way to a water storage tank and through a heat exchanger, through which household water is heated. That water is then pumped through the building usually as part of a radiant floor heating system.

Air-based heating systems involve pretty much the same thing though instead of liquid, air is used and is moved through the solar collector with the help of a fan or blower. Moving the heated air around the building is done by the building’s central air system which involves a web of air-ducts, again, usually under the floor.

However, because air can quickly cool or escape, it is a less efficient medium for transporting heat, the liquid-based systems are therefore much more effective as an active solar space heating method. Typically, air can be heated to double its natural temperature when pumped through the panels, and can be moved quickly (about 3metres per second) around a home.

The solar collectors for these systems can vary from the sophisticated to the simple, with those for air-based systems the simplest. They can be installed on roofs or on a south-facing wall (north-facing if you’re in the southern hemisphere), or even on a windowsill if it’s adequate. Liquid-based systems use flat-plate collectors mostly and are either closed-loop or open-loop in design.

Whatever system you choose, it will help to drastically reduce your heating bills and keep your home or office warm even in freezing winters – provided the sun keeps shinning of course!

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Related posts:

1. What is Active Solar Heating?
2. Active Solar Heating For The Home – What you Need to Know
3. Disadvantages of active solar heating
4. Solar heating systems – what is out there?
5. What is Passive Solar Heating