PV Gap

Louis Said:

explain using particle theory how water is heated in a solar hot water system?

We Answered:

Do you mean heating water using a solar panel? or just heating water with the suns rays?

eh....I'll answer both

Photons (light particles) from the sun hit a specially designed layer of semiconductor layer (called a solar panel), and the energy of each photon gets used up exciting an electron. This creates a bunch of free electrons that travel the electrical potential gradient thus creating a current. Run a high enough current through a material that heats up (some metal covering a nonconductor) - place in water to heat it up.

The other way is...well, the sun heats it up using microwaves.

The Sun emits lights (photons) in every part of the spectrum - and a huge amount of it. Part of this spectrum is microwaves. The microwave are just the right frequecy (or wavelenght if you like) to agitate water (push and pull the electric bonds between hydrogen and oxygen). Thus the energy of the photon is used up in moving and shaking up water molecules - which is what heat really is, making all the molecules move faster. So that's how the sun heats up water.

Hope that helps.

Tiffany Said:

Could I get solar hot water system on a trial basis?

We Answered:

Not a chance, when you find out how ineffective it is to rely on the sun for heating, you wouldn't buy it.

Darrell Said:

When I had a solar hot water system installed they gave me a bumper sticker for my car it reads?

We Answered:

LOL! Are you serious? Oh I have to see this... Thats so freaking funny! I mean, like you said unless you have a hybrid enviromentaly friendly car your screwed.... Did they give you one for your plane luggage too? haha...

xx

Mary Said:

Who would repair a solar hot water system and how much would it cost?

We Answered:

Solar systems are so new and configured so differently from one make to another . That being said , some if not most can be repaired by most competent plumbers , but many are afraid to mess with them .

Stacey Said:

Is it possible to trial a solar hot water system for a period of time?

We Answered:

I doubt you'd find a contractor willing to set up a solar hot water system on a trial basis, as there's a lot of labor involved in integrating it into your system, and then if you decided you didn't want it, more labor to take it out.

I used to have solar hot water, and the system was great. In Connecticut, on a cold but sunny winter day I'd have 87 gallons of 180 degree hot water by about 10am.

The problem was my system didn't use a heat exchanger system, it actually sent my water up on the roof, and one day the drain down system failed, so all the pipes froze and burst. I suspect the previous homeowner had installed the system himself, and the cloudy day backup system using the furnace became useless because the pipes on the roof couldn't be bypassed while a repair was made.

This was about 15 years ago, and back then, you had to bring contractors in from out of state to work on solar hot water systems, and I was unable to find anyone who could change my system over to one using anti freeze and a heat exchanger in a time frame I was comfortable with.

When it became apparent keeping solar hot water would mean I'd be without hot water for over a month, I I went back to traditional hot water.