Solar Thermal: Your Home’s Hot Water
Ever noticed how hot the water in your garden hose gets on a warm, sunny day? Why not use the same concept to heat hot water for your home?
The second highest home energy consumer is heating water for showers, sinks, and washers; almost 30% of your monthly bill. Two south facing solar collectors can heat enough water for an average family (20-25 gal/person/day). Solar thermal systems can also provide heat for pools, spas and space heating.
As fuel costs go up, your solar system continues to produce heat for free. The sun never sends you a bill!
How Solar Hot Water Systems Work
Click here for a pdf of the Drainback System
A Drainback System is essentially a “set and forget” system.
The temperature controller senses when the solar collector water is hot enough to heat water in your tank.
Then a pump transfers water from the collectors to your tank. The solar system keeps the hot water in your tank at a high temperature and your water heater boosts the temperature only if needed. Together the two systems guarantee that your hot water does not run out, even on a cloudy day.
At night or when temperatures are below freezing, the water in the roof-top collectors automatically drains back into a reservoir, protecting the collectors from frost damage.
Click here for a PDF of the Closed-Loop Glycol system
In a Closed-Loop Glycol System, a freeze proof, glycol-based fluid fills the solar collectors.
When the glycol fluid reaches a certain temperature, a pump circulates the glycol through a closed loop circulating the warm fluid through an exchanger inside your hot water tank. The glycol fluid never touches or mixes with your hot water. The cooled glycol is then sent back up to the panels for re-heating in the sun.
Glycol systems provide more installation flexibility. And don’t worry, the glycol is food grade and is completely nontoxic.
In both systems, your conventional hot water heater will provide additional heat when the sun is not enough.
Bella Energy can create custom solutions, including solar-assisted space heat, best used with a radiant heating system.
Bella Energy uses only the finest equipment available so that you will get a trouble-free system, providing you with pollution-free energy, protecting you for years from rising energy costs.