There is a general belief that large spaces are impossible to heat efficiently, but the fact is this is not true. Rarely will a home will be hard to heat since they are generally designed for comfortable living, but offices, workshops, barns and storerooms can be difficult to keep warm. The answer to the problem is passive solar space heating.
Passive solar space heating can see your heating bill plummet (or disappear altogether). It is different to other forms of solar heating since no electricity is made but the natural phenomena of convection, conduction and radiation are used to transfer heat around a room, or open space. In most cases, solar panels for such a heating system are not necessary at all – a window can do the job – but where necessary they intensify the sunlight and in this way, more heat is produced.
Normally, a passive solar space heating system will require some large windows that are exposed to sunlight for the maximum time possible. This means they are south-facing if you are in the northern hemisphere or north-facing if you are in the southern hemisphere, and are insulated well enough to keep the maximum amount of heat inside.
However, the ‘batteries’ or energy stores are the walls and floors of the room. This is where the design of your building comes into play, as the material which your walls and floors are made of can be effective or non-effective heat absorbers. Concrete is one of the more effective absorbers, as is natural wood (especially flooring), and it releases heat back into the room at night slowly.
There are three key methods of passive solar space heating, with none of them requiring a solar panel. The first is ‘direct gain’ which sees sunlight come through a window and hit the thermal mass (walls, flooring, ceiling) directly. The ratio of window-to-thermal mass is important here, with a figure of around 10 percent widely considered acceptable. At night, the walls, floors and ceiling all radiate the heat stored
The second is ‘indirect gain’ which involves the construction of a thermal mass wall (often called a Trombe Wall) only a few inches behind the insulated glazing. Between the wall and glazing air is heated, with a vent at the top allowing this hot air to move into the room behind the wall. As a result, cold air is pushed through a vent at the bottom of the thermal wall, which is then heated. At night, with both vents closed, the wall then radiates heat from its core into the room, keeping it warm.
The third is ‘isolated gain’ which is a mixture of both of the other two methods. The isolation comes in the form of a conservatory or sunroom, which is technically only an add-on to the main building. Sunrooms use direct gain while the wall between it and the main building (with vents) use indirect gain.
All three forms can drastically reduce the cost of heating an open space or room, with direct gain using 75% of the sun’s heat, indirect gain as much as 45% and isolated gain up to 30%.
Passive Solar Space Heating – Comment Below
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