Solar heating systems are classified as “active” or “passive” solar heating systems, or a combination of both. We will first look at active systems.
Active solar heating systems are comprised of collectors, a distribution system, and a storage device.
Instructions: Click on the hot spots in the image below to find out more about the main components of an active solar heating system.
Active solar heating systems operate as follows:
Note: The standby electric coil is automatically turned on and provides the heat when the water temperature to the heating coil drops because of consecutive cloudy days.
Instruction : Click the “play” button to observe the operation of an Active Solar Heating System:
Click here to open a text description of the operation of an active solar heating system.
Water from the storage tank is pumped up to the roof-mounted solar panels. The sun heats the water as it travels back to the water tank. The warm water from the tank is moved by a separate pump through a series of coils inside an air furnace. The furnace moves cool air past the coils to be heated and then distributed throughout the building.
Collector’s Efficiency is the ratio of solar radiation [1] that is captured and transferred to the collector or heat transfer fluid.
The efficiency of a collector can be expressed as:
Typical collector efficiencies range from 50–70 percent.