best solar water heater

best solar water heater

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Being able to use the energy from the sun is nothing new as solar water heaters have been available for use since the 1800's. Back then it was passive solar heaters that was in use. Now you have a choice of the passive or active heaters for use in the home and commercial buildings.

The passive heater is the most simple to install and use as it has no moving parts. The active requires some electricity to power a pump and controller. The use of solar energy can meet all or part of the homes hot water needs. The geographic location of the home will determine how much it would benefit and what kind of solar heater would be best.

A hot water system would consist of a holding tank and a solar collector to collect the suns energy. A passive system would have the holding tank as part of the collector or located up higher. In areas with no problems of freezing a batch type of heater could be used. These will heat and store the water in the collector. With the passive system the hot water will flow up and the cooler water will stay lower just like hot and cold air.

Most collectors have a flat copper plate that is painted black with tubes attached to it. The plates absorbs the solar energy and transfers the heat to the water that is flowing through the tubes heating the water. The plate is mounted in a case or box with a clear cover like glass that helps intensify the radiation much like the inside of a car in the sun.

Learn more about solar hot water systems at Solar Water Heater. Josh Stevens is an energy savings enthusiast interested in solar power and alternative energy.

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