Ad
related to: active and passive solar applications
Search results
Results From The WOW.Com Content Network
Solar energy is clean and renewable. Solar architecture is designing buildings to use the sun's heat and light to maximum advantage and minimum disadvantage, and especially refers to harnessing solar power. It is related to the fields of optics, thermics, electronics and materials science. Both active and passive strategies are involved.
Active solar techniques include the use of photovoltaic systems, concentrated solar power, and solar water heating to harness the energy. Passive solar techniques include designing a building for better daylighting, selecting materials with favorable thermal mass or light-dispersing properties, and organize spaces that naturally circulate air.
In passive solar building design, windows, walls, and floors are made to collect, store, reflect, and distribute solar energy, in the form of heat in the winter and reject solar heat in the summer. This is called passive solar design because, unlike active solar heating systems, it does not involve the use of mechanical and electrical devices. [1]
Earth sheltering is often combined with solar heating systems. Most commonly, the utilization of passive solar design techniques is used in earth shelters. In most of the Northern Hemisphere, a south-facing structure with the north, east, and west sides covered with earth is the most effective application for passive solar systems. A large ...
One of the most cost effective solar applications is a solar powered pump, as it is far cheaper to purchase a solar panel than it is to run power lines. [11] [12] [13] They often meet a need for water beyond the reach of power lines, taking the place of a windmill or windpump. One common application is the filling of livestock watering tanks ...
Some systems are passive, others are active (requiring other external energy to function). [5] Heating is the most obvious application, but solar cooling can be achieved for a building or for district cooling by using a heat-driven absorption or adsorption chiller (heat pump). There is a productive coincidence that the greater the driving heat ...
Solar chimney – solar chimney — often referred to as a thermal chimney — is a way of improving the natural ventilation of buildings by using convection of air heated by passive solar energy. Solar collector – Solar cooker – or solar oven, is a device which uses the energy of sunlight to heat food or drink to cook it or sterilize it.
Active solar techniques include the use of photovoltaic systems, concentrated solar power, and solar water heating to harness the energy. Passive solar techniques include designing a building for better daylighting, selecting materials with favorable thermal mass or light-dispersing properties, and organize spaces that naturally circulate air.