Solar Heating Panels

Often called solar thermal collectors or thermal solar panels, solar heating panels are space heating units that use the sun to warm the air in a room or building.  They range in size from small doughnut box-sized units to large, wall-mounted, or rooftop setups the size of a small car.  Most are somewhere in between these extremes, at about the size of a very tall painting (six feet or so).

The most common for home solar heating are flat plate collectors which are mounted either to the roof or on an exterior wall by professional solar panel installers.  They are relatively thin (just a few inches thick) and are very dark.  Their construction is relatively simple and they work using simple laws of thermodynamics.

An outer pane of glass or semi-clear plastic covers an air space behind which is a flat plate of metal (usually aluminium) which has been painted black.  The black metal absorbs the sun’s heat and the air between the glass and metal is heated through the greenhouse effect.  This hot air is then transferred into the building and replaced with cooler air from inside.

Some units use active fans and electronic thermostats to regulate the amount of air being transferred and to close the units off from the interior when temperatures get too high inside or low outside.

If you want your solar  panels for your home to power your heating and also benefit from the new feed in tarrif you should ensure that they are fitted by fully qualified solar installers.

Solar Panels For Your Home

Because of their relative simplicity, many solar heating panels are made at home by do-it-yourself craftsmen using simple hand tools.  Because no electrical knowledge is needed and mounting is as simple as drilling a small hole through the exterior wall for air transfer, these units are becoming more and more common as weekend handyman projects to create solar panels for home.

Home made versions consist of a box (often made of wood or metal) with a plexiglass or clear plastic cover.  For the plate inside, a piece of scrap metal, a piece of wood with hundreds of pennies glued on (and painted black), or a stack of empty tin cans glued together in columns and painted black will be used.  Heat transfer can either be passive (a hole at top and bottom allowing hot air out at top and cold air in at bottom) or active (with fans) can be built.

Solar heating panels are one of the simplest and most cost-effective ways to lower energy use in a home or building but make sure they are fitted correctly by a qualified solar installation provider to stop any costly fixes.