| Solar electricity is no longer the energy of the future, it’s the energy of today! Solar Energy is clean, renewable (unlike gas, oil and coal) and sustainable, helping to protect our environment. It does not pollute our air by releasing carbon dioxide, nitrogen oxide, sulfur dioxide or mercury into the atmosphere like many traditional forms of electrical generation does. Solar Energy does not contribute to global warming, acid rain or smog. The use of Solar Energy reduces our dependence on foreign and/or centralized sources of energy, influenced by natural disaster or international events and so contributes to a sustainable future. Solar Energy will save you money on your electric bill and is not affected by the supply and demand of fuel and is therefore not subjected to the ever-increasing price of gas. The savings are immediate and for many years to come and indirectly reduces health costs. |
SOLAR HOT WATER |
| SOLAR ELECTRICITY |
| On average, water heaters USE AS MUCH ENERGY AS A MEDIUM-SIZED CAR USES IN A YEAR! Each installed solar water heater is comparable to increasing the fuel mileage on the family car by over 60%. |
| Here are some startling numbers. According to most recent census data, there are 107 million households in the US. Of those, 41 million use electricity to heat their water and 58 million use natural gas. Millions of households throwing their money away! |
| The shallow water of a lake is usually warmer than the deep water. That's because the sunlight can heat the lake bottom in the shallow areas, which in turn, heats the water. It's nature's way of solar water heating. The sun can be used in basically the same way to heat water used in buildings and swimming pools. Most solar water heating systems for buildings have two main parts: a solar collector and a storage tank. The most common collector is called a flat-plate collector. Mounted on the roof, it consists of a thin, flat, rectangular box with a transparent cover that faces the sun. Small tubes run through the box and carry the fluid – either water or other fluid, such as an antifreeze solution – to be heated. The tubes are attached to an absorber plate, which is painted black to absorb the heat. As heat builds up in the collector, it heats the fluid passing through the tubes. The storage tank then holds the hot liquid. It can be just a modified water heater, but it is usually larger and very well-insulated. Systems that use fluids other than water usually heat the water by passing it through a coil of tubing in the tank, which is full of hot fluid. Solar water heating systems can be either active or passive, but the most common are active systems. Active systems rely on pumps to move the liquid between the collector and the storage tank, while passive systems rely on gravity and the tendency for water to naturally circulate as it is heated. Swimming pool systems are simpler. The pool's filter pump is used to pump the water through a solar collector, which is usually made of black plastic or rubber. And of course, the pool stores the hot water. |
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