Solar Air Conditioning

What are the advantages to switching to solar?

• Lower your electric bill

• Reduce your carbon footprint

• Stabilize your energy costs

• Increase your property value

• Reduce utility power dependence

• Enjoy decades of hot water

• Extend your swimming seasons

• Power your home pollution free

• Maintain power during utility outages

• Decades of low-maintenance energy

• Less use of fossil fuels and foreign oil

There are several ways to use solar power around the house. Use it to help power your home (Photovoltaics or “PV”), to heat your hot water (Solar Thermal or “SWH”), or even to heat your pool (Solar Pool Water Heating or “PWH”)! Let us show you how to start saving at home by using free energy from the sun!

First, let us tell you how the sun works to provide power for your home. Photovoltaic systems work by converting the energy in sunlight into a clean form of electricity that can be used in our houses. The PV cells consist of a positive and a negative slice of silicon placed under a thin slice of glass. As the protons of the sunlight beat down onto the PV cell, they knock the neutrons off the silicon. The negatively charged free neutrons are attracted to the silicon but are trapped by the magnetic field that is formed from the two opposing fields. Small wires on the silicon catch these neutrons and when connected in a circuit an electric current is formed. This reaction creates Direct Current (“DC”) electricity which must be passed through an inverter to be converted into Alternating Current (“AC”) which is what we use in our homes to power any electrical items. Your utility meter is constantly measuring your electrical supply and measures how much electricity your solar PV system is producing. Currently, 43 states require their utility/power companies to pay or credit you for this electricity. This is called “Net Metering”. Your solar system produces most electricity during the middle of the day, during “peak” hours when utility rates are their highest. This is a huge benefit for you because you can sell the excess electricity at high peak rates in the afternoon, and buy electricity back at lower “off peak” rates at night. Aren’t you powerful! There may be times when you are actually producing more electricity from your solar PV system than you are using from your power company and your meter dial actually spins backwards!! Talk about good feelings!

The nature of the PV cell means there is little or no maintenance required and there are no moving parts; this means that a typical PV cell can last up to 40 years with no work besides an annual clean. If only more things just needed to be cleaned once a year to work properly!

How else can you use the free energy from the sun? How about to heat your water! Air conditioning and heating your home consume approximately 60% of your average monthly utility bill. Heating your water is the second most expensive energy cost you have, coming in at about 25 to 30% of your bill. Solar Thermal energy sounds like an attractive proposition, but, for most people, the question they need the answer to first is "How does Solar Thermal Work?” The use of solar energy to heat water is not a modern-day concept, and has been used since ancient times in one form or another. The methods used to harness it have changed over the years, so we'll give some historical perspective before moving on to look at modern methods of tapping into solar thermal energy and how they work.

It starts with “The Hot Box”! Glass and mirrors have been used since ancient times to turn the sun's energy into heat, but the first practical application was discovered in the mid-18th century by Swiss scientist Horace de Saussure. De Saussure created a "hot box" which was actually 3 boxes, one inside the other, with wooden sides and bottom and a glass top. He exposed the box to the sun over a period of time, and found the temperature in the innermost box had reached 228 degrees Fahrenheit. Solar thermal was off to its official start! The 20th century saw William Bailey develop the first solar water heating system in which the heating element was separated from the water tank, allowing greater quantities of heated water to be stored.

Solar thermal technology has come a long way over the years and has been a veritable lifeline in many parts of the world where oil and other fossil fuels are in short supply. Solar water heating systems generally consist of a solar collector (usually a flat-plate collector) and a storage tank. Solar thermal is used to heat water by allowing solar collectors to collect the sun's energy to heat air, or fluid, which is then transferred to water, usually stored in your hot water tank for you and your family’s use. Solar water heating systems can save your family up to 33% of your utility bill each month!

Lastly, Solar pool heating systems use the pool's existing filtration system to pump water from the pool through a solar collector to heat the water, which is transferred directly back to the pool. In doing this, your enjoyment in the pool is no longer dependent on your utility company and a huge bill!! Cannonball!!!!

In all, solar thermal energy systems provide an inexpensive way to reduce our dependence on fossil fuel derived energies and, as a result, the size of the energy bills you receive each month. Now that you've got some background information on the technology and how the various systems work, why not use this as a stepping stone to see if this would be a viable alternative for you?

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