Here are three easy steps to a solar water heater for your tub.
- Wait a day, and then enjoy your warm bath.
No? Okay, but a similar principal is involved if you live in America, in a state that has actual seasons, and your tub is enclosed in an indoor bathroom. Your bathroom remodeling project can, and should, involve solar powered water heating. You’ll be saving money, and the earth, by lessening your reliance on fossil fuels.
Solar Water Heating
Solar powered water heating is a very real option for all of us, even during the cold months, and even at night. Solar panels on roofs are common in Greece, Japan, Turkey, Australia and Israel, and not all of those climates can claim consistent sunshine 365 days a year.
It’s time we saved some money, and cut back on non-renewable resources, by investing in solar power when we do our bathroom remodeling. Technology has evolved since the late 1800s, when water tanks, painted black, were perched on a home’s roof to absorb some of the sun’s rays. In fact, technology can now provide hot water, courtesy of the heat of the sun, using two different systems. The passive system, called the compact system, and the active system, called the pump system, with the occasional back-up of an auxiliary energy source, can easily provide hot water at any time of day, in any season, for you and your family.
Which system you need depends on where you live. The change in temperature between day and night, and between summer and winter, will factor into your bathroom remodeling plans for installing solar water heating. The possibility of the water overheating, and the possibility of the water freezing, are also climate factors to consider.
Passive systems circulate warm water during consistently warm seasons, and if you live in Florida or Southern California, this can be an easy and inexpensive system to install. Active systems, however, circulate the water using pumps, and contain antifreeze valves or drainback tanks to prevent the stored water from getting so cold that the pipes would burst.
The active system allows for the homeowner to have control over the pump and the temperature with a programmable, electronic controller, which can often also calculate and log how much energy has been saved. The controller reports the difference in temperature between the collected water, heated with solar power, and the water in the storage tank. Typically, the pump will be activated when the collected water is ten degrees warmer than the stored water.
When the water gets too cold, an antifreeze system, using nontoxic propylene glycol, circulates the glycol to prevent freezing. Or, a drain-back reservoir collects the water inside the home and holds it while the outdoor temperature is low.
The active system is more expensive to install, although do-it-yourself kits are widely available and instructions for installation can be found on the internet. If you have a solar water heating system installed professionally during your bathroom remodeling project, you may not offset the installation cost with your energy bill savings for several years. But in several years, you’ll thank yourself. The earth will thank you too.
Special thanks to Budget Bath for this informative article. Please visit their website here, Bathroom Remodeling MD.