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If you’re considering installing a new solar hot water system on your home’s rooftop as an alternative to traditional heating options, then undoubtedly, some of the burning questions on your mind are about the differences between a passive and active solar thermal systems, costs, and pros and cons of each option.
To get right to the bottom line, here are the average costs of having a completely new solar hot water system installed on a typical residential rooftop.
Active Solar Water Heat: $7,500 to $10,000+ with an average of $8,700 before the 26% federal solar investment tax credits.
If these numbers seem to cover a wide range, it''s because of the wide variety of options available when purchasing and installing a solar water heating system. Here are some descriptions and examples of the different types of systems and how we arrived at the above costs.
The heart of either a passive or an active solar water heating system is the solar collector. This is the part that transfers the sun''s energy into hot water. There are three common types of collectors, and the type used will greatly affect the overall cost of having a solar water heating system installed.
The three types are: integral collector/storage systems (ICS), flat plate collector panels, and evacuated tube collectors. We will describe how each works before explaining the difference between a passive system and an active system.
The integral collector/storage system (ICSS) has several large diameter tubes or a black tank inside a sealed, insulated box. It will have a clear cover – usually made of one or more layers of glass – to let the sunshine directly onto the surface of the tubes and/or tank.
As the dark surfaces absorb the solar energy, the water inside them is heated. It is considered a collector/storage unit because it holds the heated water in its internal tank before it goes into the house.
This is the simplest type of solar collector, and many people have constructed their own. It is also the least expensive type of solar water heat collector and the least efficient too. It is sometimes called a batch collector or batch water heater.
The flat plate collector panel is basically a shallow aluminum-framed sealed box that has an absorber plate with a special dark coating behind a glass cover. Attached to this absorber plate are copper pipes through which the water flows.
Anytime the sun shines, the absorber plate generates heat which is transferred to the pipes inside the collector.
This type of collector could be a DIY project if a person is very handy but is most often a purchased product. They are more expensive than ICS collectors, but less expensive than evacuated tube collectors.
Evacuated tube collectors are available in two configurations: heat pipe and direct flow.
The heat pipe evacuated tube collector consists of parallel rows of transparent, double-walled, vacuum-sealed tubes which have a special metallic coating in them to absorb the sun’s heat. This heat is then transferred to an aluminum fin assembly which heats a sealed copper tube inside each glass collector tube.
The heat is transferred from the hot condenser bulb into the water in the manifold. This hot water then either migrates into a tank above the collector or is sent directly into the house, depending on the configuration of the whole system.
The direct flow evacuated tube collector is sometimes referred to as a "U" pipe collector. It is different from the heat pipe collector in that it has two copper pipes running through the center of each double-walled, vacuum-sealed glass tube.
There is a heat-absorbing plate inside the tube that provides a physical separation between the incoming and return pipes from each other. Both the heat absorber plate and the hollow pipes are made from copper with a special coating to maximize the efficiency of the collector.
The water that enters the tube travels the length of the tube twice (once down and again back up) and exits warmer than at the entrance.
The evacuated tube collector is not something that can normally be made at home, though some engineer-types might purchase the vacuum-sealed glass tubes and go from there. — They are the most expensive and offer the highest efficiency of the three types of solar water heat collectors. One reason for this is that the round surface of the tubes is always at the optimum angle to the sun throughout the day.
Now that we''ve discussed the anatomy of most of these innovative water heaters, here are the differences in the key types that use this technology.
The simplest and oldest passive solar water heater is a barrel or other container on an elevated stand, which is filled with water and warmed by the sun. All that was needed was a device at the bottom to let the solar heated water out when it was wanted.
Commercially manufactured passive solar water heating systems today operate in the same basic way as the barrel on a stand, but we don''t have to carry water to fill the barrel.
The passive system uses no mechanical means to circulate (or recirculate) the water. The power of the sun is what provides the heat for the water.
There are two main types of passive solar water heater systems: thermosyphon systems and integral collector-storage systems.
These systems produce a limited amount of fully heated water. More often, they are used with a conventional tank water heater. This results in saving either gas or electric energy because the incoming water to the tank heater has been preheated by the sun.
Flat-plate collectors and evacuated tube collectors are common equipment in thermosyphon systems.
Normally installed on a south-facing roof or wall in the northern hemisphere, a thermosyphon solar water heating system can also be mounted on a ground stand. This type of system will have a solar collector – often of the flat plate type – which uses the natural property of water to rise as it gets warmer.
The cold-water supply enters the bottom of the collector and moves upwards to the outlet as it is heated by the sun. It then either goes back into the house or to the inlet at the bottom of another flat plate collector for more solar heating.
Multiple collectors increase capacity: When several of these flat panels are connected, the outlet of the last panel – which will be the hottest – then goes back into the house, often into a conventional tank water heater.
If the solar collector is of the evacuated tube type, the principle is basically the same. Supply water comes into the system and is heated by the action of the vacuum-sealed tubes as described above. The thermal tendency of water to rise as it gets hotter is what makes these configurations "thermosyphon" types.
When a hot water tap is turned on in the house, the pressure of the incoming water pushes the heated water out of the solar heating system, through the indoor pipes to the faucet.
Either type of solar collector of the passive thermosyphon kind can be paired with a storage tank mounted higher on the roof than the collector.
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