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Friday, August 22, 2008

Solar Collector

Are you already thinking that winter is coming and your electricity bills will get you to bankruptcy? Are you in search of a cheap method for warming up your house? We have the answer to all your questions here: try using a solar collector.

The solar collector is an eco-friendly device used nowadays more and more by homeowners to heat rooms and water with no cost. A solar collector is a device that absorbs, collects and transforms the solar energy into power for heating up rooms, warming water or providing light during the night. The key element of the solar collector is the absorber. An absorber is normally made up of several narrow metal strips. A heat carrying pipe is connected to these metal stripes and allows a heat carrier fluid flow right trough it. Sometimes the absorber is flat-plat. In this case the medium will flow between two sheets that are sandwiched together.

here are many types of solar collectors: the glazed flat plat collector, the unglazed flat plat collector, the liquid based collectors, the air based collector and many more.

Home Solar Collector

The glazed flat plat collector is one of the solar collector types that work as an active solar heating system. They mainly consist of an insulated metal box with a cover made of plastic or glass (this is the glazing) and an absorbing plate that is dark colored. The dark plate is used for absorbing the solar radiation that it is then transferred to a fluid that circulates in the tubes of the solar collector. His is the device that uses liquids but there are air based collectors that use air instead of the liquid for transporting the solar energy.

Experts advise us to use glazed collectors for heating up domestic and commercial water and eventually indoor pools. The unglazed collectors are mainly designed for heating the water from outdoor pools and for drying crops.

These types of flat collectors can be installed anywhere but they are mainly placed on the roofs and in the roof itself.

In choosing the right solar collector we must all think about the material we are going to heat with the solar collector. As an example you should know that an uncovered solar collector is not recommended to be used for producing process heat. We must also take in consideration the exposure to storms, the space we can provide for installing a solar collector and the amount of the radiation on that spot. When buying a solar collector we must buy components that are all of the same high quality and capacity or else we will not receive the expected power from the solar collector.

When deciding to have a solar collector installed on our property it is best to consult before with a specialist and see what he recommends in your specific case. As your needs might be different than the needs of your neighbor or friend don’t buy the same solar collector they have bought, buy the one that specialists say suit your needs best.

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