Renewable Energy
Renewable Energy
Renewable Energy
Renewable energy comes in various forms, solar heating, heat pump, photovoltaic, wind power etc, we are mainly concerned with solar and heat pump situations, the most popular forms, most people are aware of the solar situation, panels set on the roof that collect the heat and transfer it to a hot water storage vessel, mainly used for hot water due to the inconsistency of the heat available.
Heat pumps are becoming more popular, the heating medium being the earth, air or water, groundsource can be two ways, either a trench is dug with coils of pipework being laid in the ground or panel collectors depending on the area available, the heated water being sent to the heat pump that will compress the liquid thereby increasing the temperature and sending it to a heat exchanger that will transfer the heat into a storage tank/underfloor system depending on the requirements.
Air to water works in the same way apart from the fact that it takes it heat from the air not the ground, not as dependable as the earth has a steady temperature but will still collect heat down to -20oC, this is a cheaper installation than the groundsource and therefore worth considering.