Solar collectors for home heating: reviews

The discovery of the law of conservation of energy made the dream of an eternal engine unrealizable. But a person has another inexhaustible source of available energy - this is the Sun. Folk craftsmen and engineers have developed many excellent devices that allow using this renewable resource for the improvement of residential buildings. One of these became solar collectors for heating the house. As the craftsmen say, they can be made even by a master who does not have sufficient experience in this field.

How to use the energy of the Sun

Solar panels and solar collectors for heating houses are completely different devices. The former can be used not only as a source of heat. With their help, the solar energy is stored and converted into electrical energy accumulated in accumulators. Then it can be sent to different needs: power electrical appliances, heating water or coolant in the heating system and others. You can independently make such devices, but you will need to buy photocells, which are sources of energy for the entire system. The main task of the master after this will be to connect the photocells into the circuit, fix them in a special case, and then set them to the selected places.

The heating of a private house by solar collectors involves the direct use of thermal energy. The water is heated by the sun's rays, after which it is fed into the heating system. Those people who have already tried this method say that the same water can be used for organizing hot water supply. You can make solar collectors for heating by yourself. For more than a year, craftsmen have been creating similar solutions from improvised materials.

Features of the solar collector device

This device is a hydraulic system consisting of three elements: a solar panel, a storage tank and an air chamber. If you simplify the device of each of them, the solar panel is a tubular radiator, located in a box with a glass front wall. It is located in some sunny place, for example on the roof of the building. The radiators of solar cells are fed with water, which heats up, and then is transferred to the vestibule. Here, cold water is replaced by a heated coolant, so that the system maintains a constant dynamic pressure. The radiators of the solar panels receive cold water, and the hot water is in the storage tank, from which it gradually turns into the system of internal heating. Solar collectors for home heating are best placed on the south side of the roof at an angle of 35-45 degrees. The inner part of the box and the radiator itself should be painted black.

Processes within the system

Solar collectors for heating houses use thermosiphon processes in their work. The density of water changes with heating, its heated layers expand, which causes the process of displacement of the cold. The result is that there is no need for a pump that will pump the water, as the heat transfer medium moves due to natural processes.

Self-made

You can make solar collectors to heat the house with your own hands. To this end, according to the craftsmen, various materials are used. To begin with, it is required to make individual components of the system, which will be connected together with pipes.

First you need to make a solar panel. This will require a box, as well as the material from which the radiator will be created. The bottom and walls of the box must necessarily be insulated, for this foam is useful, so that heat losses are minimized. The radiator can be made from lengths of wide pipes, connected together by means of pipes of smaller diameter. On top, the box needs to be covered with glass of the required size. To increase the efficiency of the solar panel, the radiators and the interior of the solar panel must be painted black, and on the outside it is better to make the panel white.

If you make solar panels for heating the house, then the second stage is the time to create an outpost and a storage tank. These elements require for their manufacture a pair of suitable containers. The drive is made from an impressive size tank, the capacity of which is 150-400 liters. It needs insulation, for this you can use a plywood box, the free space in which will be filled with thermal insulation materials: mineral wool, polystyrene, sawdust or something else. You can use a set of several smaller tanks, but you need to connect them together.

For the pre-chamber, not too large a tank with a capacity of approximately 40 liters is used. This should be an airtight container equipped with a ball valve or other water supply device.

We collect the system

After the basic elements are ready, they must be properly placed and connected together. Solar collectors for heating the house assume that an air chamber and a storage tank will be installed first. In each it is necessary to keep the level relationship correctly. In the forecabin the water surface should be 80 cm higher than in the storage tank. Developing the heating of the house by solar collectors in winter, it must be remembered that it is better to place the external elements on the roof, from its south side, at an angle of 40-45 degrees. Between the radiator and the storage tank, a certain distance must be observed - at least 70 cm.

Location of elements

So, vacuum solar collectors for heating the house, created by their own hands, presuppose such an arrangement of elements: at the upper point there is an advance chamber, below is installed the storage tank, and at the very bottom - the solar panel. In the first two containers there can be considerable volumes of water, and this needs to be taken into account, as overlapping can simply not withstand such a load. After that, the drainage pipe of the storage tank is installed, then - the vestibules, the cold water supply pipes to the pre-chamber and the system, the hot water supply to the mixers and the storage tank. Then the "hot" pipe of the solar radiator is mounted, and also the supply pipe for the storage tank. It will also require drifts, adapters, fittings and other elements.

Heating houses with solar collectors

Feedback from users who have already installed such a system, speak for its effectiveness and ease of use. With its help, it is possible to achieve significant financial savings, since there is no expenditure of paid energy resources. The result is a system that provides heat and hot water throughout the year.

Commissioning

If you use solar collectors for heating the house, then to enter such a solution into operation it is required to fill the installation with water through the bottom drainage hole. Next, the accession of the vestibule to the water supply system at home is carried out. If all joints are tight, you can start operation.