A (Nearly) 100% Solar-heated House
Oct
21
Dramatically successful in achieving its goal of almost 100 percent active solar heating, this house was built more as a demonstration of an active heater’s capabilities than as an example of a practical solar application. Such a system is uneconomical not only because of its overall cost, but also because much of the collector and storage area is utilized only a fraction of the year, from November through April. The rest of the year it lies fallow, its huge quantities of heat unneeded in the house.
The solar system includes a full 1200 square feet of collector area, equipped with a drain-down system to prevent freezing, since the climate is very cold in winter. Water mixed with corrosion inhibitors is the heat-transfer fluid; it feeds directly into the 16,000- gallon storage tank which occupies two-fifths of the house’s full basement (poured in place along with the foundation, then lined with insulation and waterproofed).
When heat is needed in the house, storage water is pumped through baseboard radiators in each room (the house has north and south temperature zones, each served by its own pump and circulation loop). Domestic water is preheated by circulation through a coil immersed in the big storage tank.
The solar space heating is so comprehensive that almost no backup is required. An ordinary 80-gallon electric water heater switches on when necessary to warm the storage water on its way to the radiators. But even in the record cold of the 1976-77 winter, the house was 92 percent solar heated.
North side of house, seen from street, gives no indication of comprehensive solar system that provides 90-100% of its heat. House’s traditional designwell-insulated wood-frame structure with vinyl clapboard-like siding, dormers in roof, and ample north window space (albeit double glazed)—shows active solar’s ability to adapt to accustomed life styles.
From garden, house’s solar collectors are seen to occupy almost whole expanse of south roof, sloping at a 50° angle to meet winter sun. Absorber plates are aluminum tube-in-plate, painted flat black. Glazing is single sheet of acrylic. Collectors were assembled on site to fit roof precisely; those in upper row are slightly smaller than lower ones.
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