[geeks] Solar Panels on residence - anyone?

[Geoffrey S. Mendelson]

On Thu, Oct 19, 2006 at 05:12:29PM -0400, Charles Shannon Hendrix wrote:
> That's why a lot of people use solar power to generate heat. Even dirty
> panels still get very hot. I saw a couple of buildings in western NC
> that used that, and in the winter it saved them a lot of money, and in
> the summer it cut their hot water bill by quite a bit, depending on how
> rainy it was.

Almost everyone in this country has a solar water heater. Ours works
well in the summer and we can get enough hot water for all of our needs
except washing dishes (which is done in a dishwasher with it's own heater
fed by cold water). Since our solar heater is on the western side of the
house we don't get hot water until around 1pm, sometimes later.

In the winter it's pretty poor and we get almost no hot water. We would have
more if we had an active system, where the water is heated and stored in a
tank. Ours just stores it in the solar collector.

Of course heating is different than hot water. Hot water requires a large
change in water temperature, heating requires a much smaller change. If your
house is well insulated and the water moves fast enough, it will only be
a few degrees except in very cold places.

Geoff.

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