Solar Hot Water And Solar Heating With Solarbeam

By Author: Rockey
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Solar Hot Water for Homes
The SolarBeam can provide solar hot water for in-floor heating and radiant heating by providing free hot water to the boiler. At a location that has a solar radiation of 900 w/m2, 1 SolarBeam can heat 1,000 liters of water from 12 C to 60 C in 4 hours. This hot water can be used for general heating purposes or for domestic hot water. For locations that want to heat the home, but do not have infloor heating, the SolarBeam can be connected to a forced air system and will provide heating through a fan vent.

Solar Hot Water for Heat Pumps
SolarBeam can be used to provide a steady supply of solar hot water above 140 F to the boiler all year round. In this configuration, the SolarBeam tracks the sun to maintain a steady supply of hot water above 140 F. Since this facility requires the boiler to be operating all year round, the SolarBeam can provide energy savings throughout the year.
Solar Hot Water for Fire Stations
Fire stations use a lot of hot water, especially when they are large and have showers. The SolarBeam can provide solar hot water for their domestic use and for ...
... washing their fire trucks. Usually the firemen use cold water to wash their trucks, however, that is not the best solution because sometimes there is heavy dirt and hot water would work better to remove the debris. In the application at the Halifax fire department in Nova Scotia, the SolarBeam provides free hot water to 2 x 120 gallon tanks. These tanks are heated both to 170 F during the course of the day. Depending on the amount of sunshine, the SolarBeam will fill up both tanks and stop tracking because the tanks have reached their maximum temperature.

Solar Hot Water for Beverage Companies
Many beverage companies use a lot of hot water for sterilization and for the production of beverages. The SolarBeam can be used in these applications to provide water up to 95 C (200 F) or it can be used for low temperature hot water for the making of beverages. Since the SolarBeam can automatically stop providing solar hot water, various hot water tank temperatures can be maintained. In this example, 2 SolarBeams are providing solar hot water for night time sterilization of the facility. The SolarBeams can track in unison to provide more hot water. However, they each have their own tracking system, so that if one needs to be repaired, it can go off-line without affecting the whole solar hot water system.

Solar Heating for Commercial Building
Many commercial buildings can benefit from solar hot water for their general solar heating. In this case, the SolarBeam would be connected to your existing hot water. In most cases, a second or even third hot water tank is required to store the required hot water for night use heating. Generally for a building of 6,000 sq.feet and an average sunlight hours of 4 hours per day, 2 SolarBeams can provide 400 gallons of water at a temperature of 140 F. The SolarBeam will connect directly to hot water boiler systems to provide the extra energy. In forced air applications, the SolarBeam will heat the water to 176 F and a radiant blower will be used to force the hot air into the building.

SolarBeam for Large Applications
The SolarBeam can be installed in large array systems to provide hundreds of thousands of gallons of hot water per hour. Since each SolarBeam has its own tracking system, an even supply of hot water can be supplied. When hot water is required, the whole group of SolarBeams can track the sun at the same time. When the desired water temperature has been reached, some SolarBeams will stop tracking, until required. In addition, since each SolarBeam can go off-line without affecting the whole system, maintaince of the SolarBeams is no issue.

SolarBeam Can Provide Air Conditioning
SolarBeam can also be used with absorption chillers because they can supply a steady supply of hot water, up to 200 F, with superior efficiency. In these type of applications, 1 SolarBeam can replace 15 flat panels. SolarBeam is an excellent choice for huge absorption chillers that need 100,000 BTU’s/hour or more. In this type of application, 3 SolarBeams are only required, compared to 45 flat panels. Since the SolarBeam can be mounted on the ground or on the roof, there are more install options than typical flat panels or evacuated tube panels. In addition, since the SolarBeam is mounted on an 8 foot post. You do not lose any ground space, like you would if you used trough technology.

SolarBeam for Rooftop Installations
SolarBeam can be mounted on steel or concrete flat roofs. the weight of the SolarBeam is 1400 pounds. There are two options for mounting the SolarBeam on the roof. First option is mounting the steel post to the main supporting beam on the building. The second option is using a 3 leg mounting system to displace the weight of the SolarBeam.

This is a guest post by James Peter. He is a fairly well-known solar hot water and SolarBeam.