The discovery of the law of conservation of energy made the dream of the perpetual motion machine impossible. But a person has at his disposal another inexhaustible source of available energy - this is the Sun. Craftsmen and engineers have developed many excellent devices that allow you to use this renewable resource for the improvement of residential buildings. One of them was solar collectors for heating a house. As the craftsmen say, even a master who does not have sufficient experience in this field can manufacture them.
How to use the energy of the sun
Solar panels and solar collectors for heating a house are completely different devices. The former can be used not only as a heat source. With their help, the energy of the Sun is accumulated and converted into electrical energy stored in batteries. Further, it can be directed to different needs: powering electrical appliances, heating water or a coolant in the heating system, and others. You can make such devices yourself, 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 to the circuit, fix them in a special case, and then install them in the selected places.
Heating a private house with solar collectors involves the direct use of thermal energy. Water is heated by the sun, after which it is supplied to the heating system. Those people who have already tried this method say that the same water can also be used to organize hot water supply. You can make solar collectors for heating yourself. Already not the first year, craftsmen create such 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 advance chamber. If we simplify the design of each of them, then 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 a building. Water is supplied to the radiators of solar batteries, which is heated, and then transferred to the chamber. Here, cold water is replaced by a heated coolant, so that a constant dynamic pressure is maintained in the system. Cold water enters the radiators of the solar panels, and hot water is in the storage tank, from which it gradually passes into the internal heating system. Solar collectors for heating a house are best placed on the south side of the roof at an angle of 35-45 degrees. The inside of the box and the radiator itself should be painted black.
Processes within the system
Solar collectors for home heating use thermosiphon processes in their work. The density of water changes with heating, its heated layers expand, because of which the process of cold displacement begins. The result of this is that there is no need for a pump that will pump water, since the coolant moves due to natural processes.
Do it yourself
You can make solar collectors for heating your own home. For this, according to the craftsmen, various improvised materials are used. First you need to make individual components of the system, which will be interconnected using 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 be insulated, for this purpose polystyrene is useful so that heat losses are minimized. The radiator can be made from pieces of wide pipes interconnected by pipes of smaller diameter. From above, the box must be covered with glass of the required size. To increase the efficiency of the solar panel, the radiators and its inner part should be painted black, and the panel should be made white outside.
If you are making solar panels to heat your home, then the second step is when the dash cam and storage tank are created. These elements require a pair of suitable containers for their manufacture. The drive is made from a tank of impressive size, 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 insulating materials: mineral wool, polystyrene foam, sawdust or something else. You can also use a set of several smaller containers, but you will need to connect them together.
For the tanker, a not too large tank is used, the capacity of which is approximately 40 liters. This should be a sealed container equipped with a ball valve or other water supply device.
Putting the system together
After the basic elements are ready, they must be placed correctly and connected to each other. Solar collectors for heating a house suggest that a fore camera and a storage tank will be installed first. In each, it is necessary to correctly observe the ratio of levels. In the advance chamber, the water surface should be 80 cm higher than in the storage tank. When designing home heating with solar collectors in winter, it must be remembered that it is better to place external elements on the roof, from its southern side, at an angle of 40-45 degrees. A certain distance must be maintained between the radiator and the storage tank - at least 70 cm.
Arrangement of elements
So, do-it-yourself vacuum solar collectors for heating a house suggest this arrangement of elements: at the top point there is an advance chamber, a storage tank is installed below, and a solar panel at the very bottom. In the first two containers there can be considerable volumes of water, and this must be taken into account, since the floors can simply not withstand such a load. After that, the drainage pipe of the drive is installed, then - the chambers, the pipes for supplying cold water to the tank and the system, the input of hot water to the mixers and the storage tank. Then the “hot” pipe of the solar radiator is mounted, as well as the supply pipe for the storage tank. It will also require overhangs, adapters, fittings and other elements.
Solar heating the house
Feedback from users who have already installed a similar system speak in favor of its effectiveness and ease of use. With its help, it is possible to achieve significant savings in financial resources, 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 to heat your home, then to commission such a solution you need to fill the installation with water through the lower drainage hole. Next, the connecting chambers are connected to the water supply system of the house. With the tightness of all joints, it is quite possible to begin operation.