Monday, October 13, 2008

Passive solar systems tips from Deer Mountain near Chapel Hill NC

An isolated gain system has its integral parts separate from the main living area of a house. Examples are a sunroom and a convective loop through an air collector to a storage system in the house. The ability to isolate the system from the primary living areas is the point of distinction for this type of system. (See Figure 3)

The isolated gain system will utilize 15 - 30% of the sunlight striking the glazing toward heating the adjoining living areas. Solar energy is also retained in the sunroom itself.

Sunrooms (or solar greenhouses) employ a combination of direct gain and indirect gain system features. Sunlight entering the sunroom is retained in the thermal mass and air of the room. Sunlight is brought into the house by means of conduction through a shared mass wall in the rear of the sunroom, or by vents that permit the air between the sunroom and living space to be exchanged by convection.

The use of a south facing air collector to naturally convect air into a storage area is a variation on the active solar system air collector. These are passive collectors. Convective air collectors are located lower than the storage area so that the heated air generated in the collector naturally rises into the storage area and is replaced by return air from the lower cooler section of the storage area. Heat can be released from the storage area either by opening vents that access the storage by mechanical means (fans), or by conduction if the storage is built into the house.

A Solar Energy Tip from Deer Mountain just 6 miles from Carrboro|Chapel Hill. Deer Mountain has Wooded lots for sale in Chatham County only 15 minutes from Jordan Lake NC. Bring your own Builder.

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