.: Is Passive Solar A Viable Home Heating Option In Cold Areas?
By:Rick Solare
Passive solar is a method of using the energy from the sun to heat a home. It is extremely popular because the process is free once a passive solar home is created.
Is Passive Solar A Viable Home Heating Option In Cold Areas?
Passive solar can be used to heat a home in colder areas, but you have to go into it with reasonable expectations. While the cold climate is a hurdle, the real issue is going to be the length of time the sun beats down upon your property. If your home receives only four or five hours of direct sunlight a day, forget it. You will never produce enough energy to keep the home warm for sufficient periods of time.
Passive solar design is very popular in warm to mild climates because it is more or less a free method for warming a home. The manipulation of the position of the home and placement of large windows in the south facing wall is typical strategies for dealing with the issue. Obviously, large windows in a cold climate are going to result in significant heat loss regardless of the quality with which they are built. So, what can you do?
There are two primary approaches to creating a passive solar design that works in the winter. One is the use of a large Trombe Wall and the other is the greenhouse approach. Let’s take a look.
Trombe Walls are popular in passive solar designs because they effectively convert sunlight to heat and are interesting from an aesthetic view point. Typically, a Trombe Wall is 8 to 12 feet in length on the south facing wall of a home. In significantly colder areas, the wall is going to need to be much larger, perhaps the full length of the home depending upon energy analysis and the cold weather expected. An energy audit of the home is the only to arrive at a definitive answer.
You are also going to have to incorporate a flip strategy for the heat. As the sun enters the glass plate and heats up the masonry of the wall, you risk losing vast amounts of it through the glass surface. This means you need to create an air circulation method whereby you draw the hot air into a secondary space behind the wall. This can simply be a closed off room or a space intended for the purpose. The circulation should be done on a timer similar to the solar thermostats used on solar hot water panels. The point is to keep the built up heat from escaping back into the environment.
The greenhouse approach simplifies matters. The essential idea is to build an insulated greenhouse to collect and store the heat of the sun during the day. Often called a sunspace, the greenhouse is similar to those used for plants. Even in cold climates, the sun will produce a magnificent amount of heat. Again, the problem is keeping the heat from escaping once it has built up. Since the sun has to come in through a transparent surface, you inevitably have the problem of the heat escaping through the same. The best option is to use a controlled timer to blow the air through to the house once certain temperatures are reached. It is not very efficient, but you have little choice.
An alternative to passive solar heating in very cold areas is biomass. Corn burning furnaces are popular. They are a much cheaper solution as are the corn kernels. This biomass energy is also much more reliable and, personally, it is the way I would go.
Article keywords: heat, heating, solar, furnaces, climates, cold, winter, greenhouse, windows, insulation
Article Source: http://www.articles32.com
Rick Chapo is with SolarCompanies.com, a directory of solar energy companies. Visit us to read more solar power articles.
.: New Science Articles
1). Sports Science & Improving Sporting Performance
Sport science is a collection of scientific disciplines that work together to improve the performance of a given athlete.
2). A Brief History Of Everything
Here is a thumbnail sketch of how everything came to be and a few ideas of how we may cope with the challenges of the future.
3). A Look Into The Cosmos: How Telescopes Work
Since Galileo gifted the world with the telescope, technology has driven it along to becoming very hi-tech and very modern.
4). A GPS System Will Take You Anywhere
The GPS (Global Positioning System) is a "constellation" of 24 well-spaced satellites that orbit the Earth and make it possible for people with ground receivers to pinpoint their geographic location.
5). Making Haste with Waste
One of the major sources of biomass is waste, in all its organic form and splendor. Our society has away of producing tons and tons of waste in all possible forms and anything organic in that waste tumbling out of our garbage bags.
6). How Do Fuel Cells Work
Fuel Cells are important emerging technologies today and have the potential to successfully replace the currently employed fossil fuels, towards a cleaner, greener, more efficient and more capable source of energy.
7). How You Dream Your World Into Existence
Since reality at the subatomic energy is only pure energy, we have to look to consciousness to define the structure of the world. When we do this, we find that we have a large role to play in the shape of things to come.
.: Top Science Articles
1). Alternative Fuel Source - An Urgent Need For One
Using alternative fuel sources is not just a matter of environmental responsibility. It is not just about assuaging your conscience. It is good sense, and sound planning. Although most of us are in denial, the fossil fuels which form the backbone of our world economy are dwindling quite rapidly, even as we go about our daily business in our cars. Although few Americans use an alternative fuel source to commute, those who do are soon going to be at an advantage.
2). Different Branches Of Chemistry
Chemistry is generally divided into two broad branches: organic chemistry and inorganic chemistry. Other types of chemistry include physical chemistry, biochemistry, and analytical chemistry, with each field branching off into several specific subfields. Here’s a brief description of the most common branches of chemistry.
Organic Chemistry
Organic Chemistry has to do with the study of compounds that contain carbon (and sometimes hydrogen).
3). Chandrayan I
It was on July 20, 1969 that "Eagle", the lunar module landed on the moon and American Astronaut Neil Armstrong took "that one small step" paving way for "a giant leap for mankind" .
In 2007-08, India will launch Chandrayan I, which will be closely followed by China's CHANGE-I. Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) is spear-heading all the activities in the field.
4). How to Make a Thermometer
A thermometer is an instrument that measures the temperature. Depending on what country you live in, temperature is measured either in a scale called Fahrenheit or Celsius...
5). Go Meteorite Hunting
Go Meteorite Hunting
6). The Fossil Record And Creation Science
Young earth creationists commonly point to the fossil record in order to support their position. In one instance, the article "The Fossil Record: Becoming More Random All the Time" by John Woodmorappe, has some very good points to it (Footnote 1). Read it if you like, (its a long one), but you don't have to much farther than the abstract to see problems.
7). Top Bar Hive - an alternative beekeeping method
The topbar beehive is not a new concept. Historical reference to the top-bar hive date back to the 1600's. Most of today's top bar bee hives are derived from work in the 1960's. It was perfected for use in Kenya, Africa, and is often referred to as the Kenya Hive. Today it is also used in many other developing countries for it's simple design and cost effective management methods.