How Do Solar Panels Use Heat

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.

How do solar panels use heat.

They can be used in any climate and the fuel they use sunshine is free. Solar power is a hot topic these days. Simply put a solar panel works by allowing photons or particles of light to knock electrons free from atoms generating a flow of electricity. Solar panels actually comprise many smaller units.

Some solar panels do use the sun s heat to generate electricity and these are known as thermal panels. If it increases to 35 c 95 f efficiency falls to 16 3 percent. With energy costs increasing and expected to keep on increasing many are seeing solar power as the way to go. Keep the solar panel out of the wind as much as possible.

But adding solar heating isn t always all that easy especially when that home wasn t designed with solar in mind. The light from the sun heats up the panels which can be used for household hot water or to generate steam and electricity. Solar thermal panels use heat from the sun to warm fluid passing through them as the diagram below shows. 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.

For best heating results run the pool pump during the sunniest time of the day. 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. This is then used to heat your water which is stored in a hot water cylinder. It may seem counter intuitive but solar panel efficiency is affected negatively by temperature increases.

If you want to use two or more solar collector panels connect them in parallel. 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. While expensive it s possible to add solar power to pretty much any home. This could easily amount to thousands of dollars back in your pocket over the lifetime of your system.

This works with the use of a heat exchanger in the airflow of your forced air system. Regardless of which panels you decide to use there will always be some energy output loss due to heat. If the surface temperature of your roof increases to 30 c 86 f your solar panel s efficiency will fall to 16 7 percent. Solar pool heating panels last about 20 years so in that scenario you could be looking at about 17 years of cost savings.

How to counteract solar panels overheating.