Clean energy is most commonly associated with the use of solar, wind, hydroelectric, and geothermal energy to generate electricity. These are all renewable, effectively infinite sources of energy at our disposal, and they will become much more important over the coming decades to our national infrastructure and power supply to deliver clean, cheap energy to the masses. However, solar energy can be used for more than simply generating electricity, and you can meet the heating and cooling needs of your home through the use of what has become known as passive solar energy.

Store It For Later

You can use solar energy equipment to actually store passive solar energy for later consumption. With complete integration into your home possible with modern technology, this form of heating and cooling will be connected to a variety of vents throughout your home, which will be able to either cool or heat your home. Also, passive solar energy can be used for your water heater, saving even more electricity that way.

The trick to passive solar energy is that it doesn’t have to convert solar energy into electricity, thus losing a certain amount of energy in the process. What you’re left with is a more efficient heating and cooling system than you would have if you converted solar energy into electricity and then used that solar energy for your water heater, electric heat registers, and air conditioners. However, you may want to complement the cooling aspect of this system with a dehumidifier or two to take the humidity out of the air, which can make the cooling feel a lot more efficient, or you may even want to have an air conditioner for back up for particularly hot days that reach degrees in the three digits.

As a rule of thumb, you need to buy solar panels to cover about one third of the total square feet of your home on your roof, so if your home is 1200 square feet, then you’ll need to cover a 400 square feet area on your roof with solar panels for passive solar energy heating and cooling. This technology for your home is also perfectly complemented by more conventional solar energy to generate electricity, so you can empower all of your electrical devices using free and clean solar energy as well. Passive solar energy (and normal solar energy as well) will pay itself off within a decade, and after that time, you’ll still be saving hundreds of dollars on your electric bill each month.

Related posts:

1. Save $100,000 and the Environment With Solar Heating Energy
2. The Difference Between Passive and Active Solar Energy
3. Passive Solar Energy: What it is and What it Has to Offer
4. Principles Of Solar Energy Are Used In Active, Passive and Photo-voltaic Methods
5. Solar Power: Heating Your Home With The Sun

Tags: Passive Solar Energy

Give us your rating of this article below!

Trackback URI | Comments RSS