How Do You Heat A House With Solar Power?

It’s impossible to stay warm and comfortable without space heating during the winter. So, it’s not surprising to see that the electricity bills are usually the highest in colder months. Besides, you will need it during seasons other than the winter as well.

This makes heating systems one of the largest consumers of energy. So, it is crucial to try and make this system as sustainable as possible. Now, what’s better than using the sun to heat up your home?

The earth receives trillions of watts of solar energy continuously. This is greater than ten thousand times the world’s total energy usage. By taking advantage of this, you can shift your dependence on fossil fuels to clean energy.

So, how implement solar heating systems in your house for space heating? To know more about heating a house with solar power and more, please keep scrolling.

Key Takeaways

• Solar heating systems offer a sustainable way to reduce energy consumption for heating homes by harnessing the sun’s abundant energy.
• There are two main types of solar heating systems: passive, which relies on design and location, and active, which uses technology like solar thermal heaters and photovoltaic panels.
• Active solar heating systems, although more complex and expensive, tend to be more practical for existing homes and can significantly reduce electricity bills when integrated with heating devices like heat pumps and radiant floor systems.

Types of Solar Heating Systems for Your House

Using solar energy is one of the most cost-effective and efficient ways to keep your house warm. Depending on your requirements, you can choose the type of solar heating system.

Generally, there are two types of heating methods— passive solar heating and active solar heating systems.

The active solar heating system uses solar thermal heaters and photovoltaic panels. On the other hand, a passive heating system relies on the design and location of your house for heating without involving any such technologies.

Passive Solar Heating System

Passive solar heating does not involve technologies but relies primarily upon the design of the building. For instance, having many south-facing windows allows more solar radiation inside the house. This will considerably increase the solar heat gain. Additionally, having less glass on the north-facing area to trap the heat.

Other passive solar heating techniques include landscaping using suitable trees and plants and creating overhangs. You can also manipulate solar space heating by using curtains and blinds. All you have to do is keep them open during winter days and close them in the summer months. You can check out some more examples of passive space heating systems below:

• Using concrete floors
• Building thermal mass masonry to trap heat
• Installing airtight insulation methods on the outer walls to store the heat
• Creating more sunrooms and greenhouses
• Implementing active daylight techniques

These processes are called passive solar heating because none of the techniques use any mechanical or electrical devices for space heating.

By incorporating these passive solar heating techniques, you can save up to 30% to 70% on your heating bills. The savings widely vary depending on your building location and weather, yet it is vital to implement them when building a new house or renovating your home.

Active Solar Heating System

Active solar heating systems use electrical and mechanical technology to keep your building warm. You can choose from a wide variety of solar heaters to space heating and central heating.

Some of the technologies include solar thermal heaters, photovoltaic systems, and tesla solar roof. You can also integrate your existing space heating system with solar collectors and panels. It includes technologies like hydronic radiant in-floor heating systems, hot water baseboards, and heat exchangers.

Differences Between Active and Passive Solar Energy Systems

By implementing solar space heating, you can cut down on your electricity bills and live more sustainably. But, how do you decide which of these two systems is better for you? Take a look at these differences before deciding:

• Active solar heating systems are more complicated than passive ones.
• Passive systems are less expensive than the other type.
• In passive systems, the solar collectors trap and circulate the sun’s energy naturally. In comparison, an active system involves mechanical and electrical devices.
• You can implement passive systems only in new buildings or houses. In contrast, active systems are suitable for both new and existing houses.

As energy consumption is increasing, passive systems may fall short in many places. So, active solar heating systems seem to offer more practical solutions. Below are some ways in which you can explore active systems.

How to Use Active Solar Heating in Homes?

Active solar heating methods use solar collectors to power heating devices. Solar air collectors heat air, and liquid heaters heat the liquid. This will move through the pipes in your house to keep it warm. Now, it’s time to check out how you can use active systems.

Heating with Solar Thermal Collectors

A solar thermal collector is a device that collects solar heat by absorbing the sunlight. Generally, this device is used to heat water, although it has widespread uses in solar parabolic troughs, non-water heating devices, and solar towers.

A flat plate solar thermal collector is the most common type of collector used for domestic purposes. It contains a set of tubes filled with fluid inside a black collector. The collector will have a glass cover to allow the sunlight to heat the pipes inside and trap them.

They take up less space, and they have a low profile making them suitable for domestic usage. There are also different types of collectors. The most common two types include—

• Flat Plate Collectors
• Evacuated Tube Collectors or Vaccum Tube Collectors
• Forced Air Heating System

Using solar thermal energy, you can heat your home with a forced-air heating system. A forced heating system uses air as a medium for heat transfer with the help of an air source heat pump.

A heat exchanger in the airflow allows the solar heat to transfer into the system. This will circulate and help in heating up the house.

Hydronic Radiant Floor Systems

You can use solar hot water with a hydronic radiant floor system to warm up your building. Hydronic systems heat the house with the help of tubes laid in a pattern under the floor. It derives heat from the water running through the tubes in hot water baseboards.

By pumping solar hot water through these pipes, you can allow solar energy to meet your radiant floor heating requirement.

Heat Exchanger

If you have a stand-alone heat exchanger, you can run the solar hot water through it. This is ideal for small houses and apartments where you do not have an existing heating system. Besides, it does not require making any modifications to your home or your heating systems.

It is also an excellent way to heat areas your current heating system does not cover. For instance, if you want to build an extra room or heat up your garage area. You can use a stand-alone heat exchanger and power it using solar-heated water.

Liquid Active Solar System

You can also employ a liquid solar heating system in your house. To implement this, you will have to install a radiant slab system. They are panels of pipes or tubes installed beneath the floors and inside the walls of your building.

The heated liquid is pumped through your home. This process radiates heat into the room from the tunes. For this, you will have to install a water storage tank to store the solar-heated liquid and transfer the heat. You can also use this system to heat water in your home.

Using Solar Photovoltaic Solar Panels to Heat Your House

Photovoltaic solar panels, otherwise known as PV panels, are devices used to directly convert the sun’s energy into electricity. It uses semiconducting materials that exhibit the photovoltaic effect.

You can use solar panels to heat your house or apartment building. It is one of the most easy-to-setup choices since the mechanical and electrical aspects are more straightforward.

Besides, many households in the US use electricity for space heating. This means you can easily integrate the panels with the existing system without the hassle of transferring the hot water through the heating systems.

On the downside, the energy efficiency of these photovoltaic panels is less. It ranges anywhere between 15% to 20%. The efficiency also varies depending on the weather and your house location. Furthermore, researchers have developed PV panels that can provide about 50% efficiency, but it will take some time to become commercially available.

Nonetheless, you can receive energy all around the year if you are connected to the grid. Generally, most houses generate excess electricity in sunny months and transfer it to the grid. You can encash it during the cool and cloudy months.

Overall, PV solar panels come with more advantages than disadvantages. So, it is wiser to use them over other techniques to heat your house.

Heat Pumps

A heat pump is a space heating system that can warm up (or cool down) an enclosed space. It can also be used as a standard domestic water heater.

They work by extracting heat from the outside environment and transferring it inside the room. They use a compressor and a heating coil to carry out the process.

You can integrate solar thermal panels with the heat pumps to create integrated solar air heating systems. This will help you produce energy in the least expensive and most energy-efficient ways.

Furthermore, there are two types of heat pumps: Air-source heat pumps and ground-source heat pumps.

Air Source Heat Pump

An Air heat pump is a reversible heating device that uses outside warm air as a heat source when it is on heating mode. It works as a heat sink when in cooling mode.

The heat is then sent to your house’s radiant slab system. The device uses the same external heat exchanger and vapor-compression refrigeration process used in air conditioners.

The air pump heat distribution systems can deliver three times more heat energy than your home requires. Unlike other devices, heat pumps transfer heat instead of converting them from other forms of energy.

These heat pumps are further divided into many types. It includes the following:

• Ductless, Ducted, and Short-Run Ducted
• Multi-zone and Single Zone
• Split and Packaged

Ground Source Heat Pump

A ground source heat pump does not depend on the heat energy in the air. Instead, it relies on heating systems buried in the few meters below the surface in the ground. At this point, the soil temperature does not fluctuate a lot, even when there are significant changes in temperature above the surface.

This type of pump is more energy efficient for space heating. However, it is quite expensive to install and difficult to integrate with solar panels.

The ground source heat pump is further classified as follows:

• Open-loop heat pump
• Closed-loop heat pump
• Direct Exchange

How Many Solar Panels Are Required to Run A Heat Pump?

As a rule of thumb, you will need about 1500 watts of solar power for every 1 Ton of heat pump rating (AC). It is 5 times 300-watt solar panels.

The exact answer depends on various factors such as the type of heat pump, wattage rating, and energy requirements. If you are using other forms of heating, the number will vary depending on that as well.

Here’s a look at some popular heat pumps and their average energy usage. This will help you understand the electricity usage of the pumps better:

• 5 tons (air-source heat pump size) – 2400 watts
• 2 tons – 2800 watts
• 3 tons – 4000 watts
• 4 tons – 5200 watts
• 5 tons – 6400 watts

Electric Resistance Heating Process

Electric resistance heaters use electricity to warm the place. It works by heating up high-resistance wires. This type of device is the most suitable for heating a particular area in your space since it is not useful to keep a whole house warm.

There are several types of electric resistance heaters, they include the following:

• Electric Furnaces
• Electric Wall Heaters
• Electric Baseboard Heaters

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Wrapping Up

As you can see, active heating systems are better for your house. Nonetheless, it is wiser to integrate both active and passive systems wherever possible. This way, you can cut down on your overall costs and improve the overall energy efficiency.

These two methods can significantly decrease your bills in warm and cold weather conditions. Besides, they help you replace fossil fuels and work towards a cleaner and greener future.

You can also claim your solar incentives after implementing active heating systems. It includes tax credits, subsidies, and financial grants. So, it’s time to consider what changes you can make to your house heating systems.