What is Solar Water Heater? What are the components involved in it? How to become a successful installer of the same?

 

Solar water heater is heating the water without any conventional fuel and fully through abundantly available solar energy. Solar energy is available abundantly across the globe and harvesting the same is an art of manifesting resource. This free energy could be applied in various purposes either being heat / steam energy generation or producing electricity. The process involves various methodologies and technologies in harvesting the same. For example, Solar Water heater uses Sun’s heat energy as energy source whereas a Solar Power system uses Sun’s Light energy as Energy source. In this section we would be migrating through various sections that provide a detailed insight about the Solar Energy.

Solar Water Heaters:

This uses primarily the Sun’s heat energy as the energy source; the radiation’s from the Sun is directly harvested using absorption method. The sun rays are made fell into the solar collector which would be typically made up of a black layer of coated copper which are more prone to absorb the heat energy. The top of the black collector would be made up with Copper tubes which are spiraled or laied up and down throughout the layer, where the one end is connected to the Cold water inlet and the other end would be connected to the hot water collector tank. When the cold water in injected into the copper tube, typically of lesser diameter, the water gets heated up quickly as the radiation falls over it. The heated up water is then move upwards due to the reduced density due to heat and it gets stored inside the collector tank.

Alternately nowadays ETC (Evacuated Tube Collector) technology has been implemented instead of collector plate, where the water gets heated up when it flows into these ETC, which are typically constructed by glass materials of 2 layers, which has been  vacuum evacuated. The evacuated tube are more prone to absorb sun’s radiation than the conventional collector plate technology. Further the tubes are coated with 3 metals that absorb heat energy to the maximum possible extent.

The collector tank is typically a Stainless Steel material, which is been thermally insulated inside to avoid heat energy loss due to convection or radiation. The heated water rises up and gets stored inside this hot water collector tank. The tank is insulated either with Rock Fiber or Glass Fiber insulation for higher efficiency and longer life applications; alternately the tank is also insulated with PUF (Poly Urethane Foam) Insulation, which is typically of lower density material and comparatively lesser life.

The hot water that is stoned inside the collector tank would be of upto 65 deg C and the insulation would retain the heat energy for upto 36 to 48 hours. The water inlet to be provided with a NRV that prevents water getting feeding back to the Cold water tank. The collector tank shall be of two layers where the inner grade is made up of higher quality SS sheets and the outer shell is constructed with a SS sheet of lower grade. The in between layer between the sheets would be stuffed with Thermal Insulation materials like Glass Wool, Mineral Wool or PUF.

The assembling or support structured are made up of MS materials which are then cutted and bended into definite shapes and power coating layer has been applied to provide longer life and free from rust for the structures.   

Thus the Solar Water heaters are proven methodology in most of the geographical applications to heat up the water in a most traditional way and more efficiently when related to the other water heating methods with conventional fuel or firewood or electricity. Further as there is no wear and tear losses involved the life of the water heaters are typically longer when compared to the electric water geysers and hence lower maintenance. These water heaters are applicable for both Hard and Soft Water. Further as there is no operational cost the pay back of the unit is much lesser.

Solar Electric Systems:

Solar Electric systems are units that generates electric power when the Solar Panels are exposed to the Sunlight as the panels are made of the PN semiconducting material, which energizes the atom flow when the sun light hits the surface as the light has an invisible energy called photons which energizes the atoms when the light falls on the semi conducting materials. The panels are made up of multiple small solar cells typically of 1.5 to 2 W capacities which are then integrated into series and parallel connections thus forming a cumulative energy generation. This technology is often termed as Photo Voltaic as the energy gets generated when the light falls on the surface. Hence the Solar Panels technically called as Solar Photo Voltaic Panels.

As the technology grows the Panels are also produced by different materials and are categorized in Monocrystalline, Polycrystalline, Thin Film, Cadmium Arsenide and GIS. The latest developed panels are most efficient than the other type of panels also the associated cost.

The Solar Energy that are harvested from the Sun are either stored in Batteries or directly fed up into the grid which are termed as Grid connected systems and stored energy systems are termed as Off Grid systems. The On Grid or Grid tied systems are applied in Industrial sectors, whereas the Off Grid systems are widely used in Domestic segments.  The off grid system typically needs more monitoring and maintenance when compared to the Grid tied systems.

Conclusion:

Hope this article provides a preliminary insight about the solar energy and its functions. This article to be continued with more technical details and comparison about various Solar Technologies with its detailed manufacturing process. If you find this article useful, please share your feedback and comments. If you want to know more about the same and any clarifications if you going to install the same please write to us.

If the article was found useful and informative, please share it among in your network under your own discretion. Thank for reading the article.