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Solar Home Heating

Victoria Said:

solar heating for my home,what system are best.?

We Answered:

Passive systems are the most reliable. The more storage tanks, pumps and wiring you have the greater the cost and the lower the reliability. The KISS principle applies to solar energy.

Before somebody argues with me, they should think it through. No matter what you do, you have somewhere around 225 BTU per hour per square foot of collector surface potential gain, depending on several variables like latitude. You cannot change that no matter what you do. Everything you do to pump or store that energy is parasitic, it cuts into the efficiency and every moving part in the world is subject to failure.

Passive solar space heating has far greater gains in energy efficiency. The Egyptions knew that 3,000 years ago and it still holds true.

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