For those people residing in the northern hemisphere, the most intense sunlight comes from the south. Knowledgeable individuals ensure that their homes are planned to take full advantage of the quantity of winter sunshine that enters their houses. If you are constructing a home that you wish to be heated primarily by the sun, it is best to put the majority of windows on the southern face of your home. Using passive solar technology can make the most of sunshine to convert the light into heat. With best application of the technology, you can warm homes and businesses with passive solar. Passive solar water heating systems depend upon gravity feed in order to make passive solar work. If it uses a pump or fan to force the liquid through, then it is considered to be an active solar heating system. Passive solar technology offers direct and indirect gain for heating spaces. It can also retain the heat gained throughout the day by heating and storing heated water, and utilizing thermal mass, such as concrete and stone. During daytime hours, the thermal mass absorbs the heat that gets in your home, and releases it gradually throughout the night when it's needed most. Passive solar equipment includes solar ovens and other cooking equipment. There are also solar chimneys that promote ventilation. Passive solar power can also be seen in things such as solar furnaces and solar forges. Sunrooms are another example of passive solar power as it lets the sun come into the space and traps it, to heat up the air and any thermal masses in the room. Passive ventilation can then help disperse this added heat through the majority of your house. You don't need any machinery or devices to make the most of the sun heating a space, just a large window with panes of heat resistant glass. Light enters into the room, converts into heat, and cannot escape back out through the windows. An extremely basic kind of solar heat gain. (Because this video is about Australia, you must reverse North and South if you live in the Northern Hemisphere, since the summer sun is in the north in the Northern Hemisphere and the winter sun is in the south) Solar gain is describing the boost in temperature in an area, an object or a structure that is caused by solar radiation. The stronger the sun the more solar gain you have. A solar furnace is typically a large device that is produced in order to funnel the heat directly to one place. The heat produced is great -- temperatures can reach as much as 3,000 degrees -- however it does produce a great deal of electrical energy from it. When you compare the expenditures associated with passive solar you recognize that the savings that you can attain can make the expenses of passive solar worthwhile. Since there is no mechanism required to power the system or to distribute the heat makes passive solar heating more economical. With active solar heating, you must have a device that can shift the heat to where you desire it. Passive solar is most popular with those who are just beginning with solar power and they might find that they like it enough to adhere to it. When you are all set for an upgrade it is easy to move up to active power. Including a mechanism that will quickly and easily pump the water, or warm air, is a reliable method of combining today's technology with preservation and conservation that we can access. Passive solar energy is something that we will be seeing a lot of in the future as the requirement for solar power continues to increase. As the costs of other standard energy sources climb ever greater, low cost solar energy will become progressively appealing to possible clients. |