How Do Solar Panels Use Heat

How to install solar panels to heat your swimming pool.

How do solar panels use heat.

Some solar panels do use the sun s heat to generate electricity and these are known as thermal panels. If the surface temperature of your roof increases to 30 c 86 f your solar panel s efficiency will fall to 16 7 percent. Running it longer will result in more heat in the pool. If you want to use two or more solar collector panels connect them in parallel.

It may seem counter intuitive but solar panel efficiency is affected negatively by temperature increases. Solar panels heat water that is delivered to a storage tank photo courtesy of david springer national renewable energy laboratory solar water heaters also called solar domestic hot water systems can be a cost effective way to generate hot water for your home. Solar power is a hot topic these days. For best heating results run the pool pump during the sunniest time of the day.

Keep the solar panel out of the wind as much as possible. An immersion heater unvented hot water cylinder might be needed as a back up heater or to get the water to the temperature you want. Simply put a solar panel works by allowing photons or particles of light to knock electrons free from atoms generating a flow of electricity. Photovoltaic modules are tested at a temperature of 25 degrees c stc about 77 degrees f and depending on their installed location heat can reduce output efficiency by 10 25.

This could easily amount to thousands of dollars back in your pocket over the lifetime of your system. But adding solar heating isn t always all that easy especially when that home wasn t designed with solar in mind. They can be used in any climate and the fuel they use sunshine is free. How to counteract solar panels overheating.

Solar pool heating panels last about 20 years so in that scenario you could be looking at about 17 years of cost savings. Solar thermal panels use heat from the sun to warm fluid passing through them as the diagram below shows. This works with the use of a heat exchanger in the airflow of your forced air system. If it increases to 35 c 95 f efficiency falls to 16 3 percent.

The heat exchanger has metal fins that allows the collected solar heat to be dumped into the air where it s circulated into the ductwork. The light from the sun heats up the panels which can be used for household hot water or to generate steam and electricity. With energy costs increasing and expected to keep on increasing many are seeing solar power as the way to go. This is then used to heat your water which is stored in a hot water cylinder.

Regardless of which panels you decide to use there will always be some energy output loss due to heat.