Passive Solar Products

By: EconomyWatch   Date: 30 April 2010

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Passive solar products help reduce heating and cooling bills

With increasing research on solar power, different design techniques have become popular for various solar products.

Product designs can be based on passive or active solar energy. Products based on passive solar energy do not have any active mechanical systems to increase the usability of solar energy. While costs associated with operating these products may be limited or nil, maintenance costs are very low.

Heating and cooling typically contribute as much as 50% of a home’s utility bill. Furthermore, heating and cooling systems are responsible for annually emitting 150 million tons of carbon dioxide in the US, according to the Department of Energy’s EERE (Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy) website (http://www.eere.energy.gov/). Hence, this has become a focus area for displacing traditional energy sources.

Houses and buildings can be designed to use passive solar energy for space heating and cooling. In this case, efficiency would depend to a large extent on natural ventilation, orientation of the building and the building components used. Among the various products that one can consider for passive solar heating are windows. Such windows are made with insulated frames, multiple glazing and low-emissivity (or low-e) coatings and can reduce heat loss by up to 75%. This is more effective if floors and walls are made of sound thermal materials.

Solar cookers are good examples of products that are based on passive solar energy and have evolved significantly over time. In 1994, California-based Solar Cookers International developed a panel solar cooker, the CooKit. This solar cooker uses a highly reflective panel to direct sunlight to a dark-colored cooking pot that is placed inside a plastic bag.

Solar water heating systems have also gained popularity. These systems use solar thermal collectors, a system to transfer heat from the point of collection to where it will be used and a tank to store heat. Several countries are now subsidizing passive solar water heating systems to encourage their use.

As far as passive solar coolers are concerned, one could consider solar chimneys. These chimneys are painted black, so that they get heated during the day. The heat causes the air to rise and creates suction at the base of the chimney, which has a cooling effect on the room.

Some product designs use both passive and active solar energy to maximize efficiency.


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