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Why Should We Consider Solar Water Heating?
Many people are looking to solar power and think they have it, they will save money. The truth is that solar electricity is among the most costly to produce. It has its place and it has great benefits, do not misunderstand. But this is not cheap, so for those who look closely at the numbers, it does not usually work.
One thing that does not work out is solar hot water. I refer to a system that heats water directly. There are some types of heating systems, solar water, This means that a special water mixture is used to transfer energy from the heating panels to the tank warms you. The heat is transferred to the tank through a heat exchanger. In this way, the actual water you use never went up in the sensors, that energy is transferred from the panels to the vat heating. The advantage here is that the system can be designed with a kind of antifreeze, so that it can continue to operate in our climate and produce results. Other types of systems can be an open system - where the actual water used is heated in the solar collector and a drain-back system where the system itself drains water to prevent freezing up. Everything that is supposed to work all year must have an anti-freeze in question.These systems are cost effective and convenient for a number of reasons. First, it is much more effective and more efficient to heat water directly rather than trying to produce another form of energy. The sun produces heat heating if something is a natural extension of that.
A system of solar water heater usually has very little interaction, which means you can own one without knowing how it works or having to think. The installed and forget about it. You do not understand a multitude of components and how they interact with each other - as is usually the case with a solar electric system.
The Solar Geyser are generally expensive as the owner can afford. The price is reasonable and easy to install, making it very attractive.
An important part of your energy bill each month is used to heat your water. It's something that if you can eliminate or reduce this cost, you will notice immediately and it will have a lasting impact on your budget.
Hot water is something that everyone uses and can be produced free by the sun. This is an excellent starting point when searching for alternative energy solutions.
by Vertexplus
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by pete087 4th February
An interesting article on TV recently (Feb 2012) intrigued me to go to the site of a Christchurch company that the article was about....the ability,at last,of being able to return home generated electricity to the national grid via a switching device,thereby being able to credit your account instead of forever paying THEM !
Admitedly what you would get credited would be a miserable amount per unit (kwh) compared to Australia and other countries,but at least you have some measure of limiting your own costs here in NZ.
But the beauty with this concept device which is being installed throughout Christchurch and is exported overseas,is that YOU choose whatever generation input......solar (photo voltaic),hydro (mini),wind,etc.....to connect into this "auto switchboard" which so far handles up to 3.8kwatts capacity.
Google "Enasolar NZ" and the whole site comes up with all the details with graphs and specifications,and proofs of what they've done so far over the last few years. It's well worth the look.
Of course it costs money so it knocks out the majority of people like us,but the costs are coming down considering that the electricity costs are going up and will continue to rise steeply in the near future here in NZ.
A rough rule of thumb is $1 per 1 watt for the panels on a roof,and since most panels are 1 kw/square metre,and most houses need at least 3 square metres minimum for hot water type solar setups.This allows for the sun's angle increasing from verticle that makes it more inefficient during the early and late hours of a normal day.
PV.....photo voltaic,are a completely different "animal" as they are flat panels which are becoming more flexible these days and can be formed to fit various parameters.They simply generate dc (direct current) which are fed to an inverter which converts it to ac (alternating current) with an output of 240 volts for normal house use.
It is the inverter and converter combination unit with auto sensing and switching all built in that is what this Christchurch company is producing.
There is no need to have banks of car batteries being charged all the time and continually serviced stashed away under the house....and as anyone would know,such batteries are a major cost in previous "home inverter/converter" systems.
When the sun goes down the house automatically switches back to the normal electricity supplier.
Not bad eh..........?
And fascinating !
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