Solar Water Heating For Your Home

When choosing solar panels for use in the home you have a few options. The first being the classic photovoltaic or PV solar panels these convert sunlight directly to electricity.

The second type is flat plate solar panels and evacuated/vacuum tube's these work in a different way to the photovoltaic as they don't convert the sunlight into electricity but convert it directly into heat to be used to heat your hot water. Out of the two units for heating hot water in the home, the solar vacuum tube system in more efficient with efficiency's of over 90% in ideal conditions.

How do solar hot water panels work?

Solar hot water is not a new concept it has been around in one form or another for over a century now, but the technology has advanced a lot in the last 20 years.

Solar vacuum tubes are the best system for collecting solar energy from the sun, they work by heating a special heat conducting material inside a tube encased in a outer evacuated tube.

The suns light hits the outer coating and is then converted to heat, it then passes through the vacuum and is absorbed and trapped in the heat conducting material (sometimes a liquid antifreeze solution , oil or with the new systems conductive copper). This heat is then transported by means of conduction to the hot water cylinder to heat the water. This process with modern solar technology is so efficient we are seeing readings of over 90% efficiency this is by far one of the best solutions for solar water heating

The choice of solar panels for your house or home should be made with a return on investment in mind. You should expect to recoup at least 25% of your investment within 3 years of the system being installed this would come from the amount you would save on fuel from heating hot water in your home.