| Having a solar powered house is a step in the right direction. It's not as expensive as you might think, and it can save you hundreds of dollars every month in electricity bills. It all started because of the 1973 oil embargo, then there was a lot more interest in solar energy. The US government gave $400 million per year for solar energy research which was much more than the usual $1 million per year.
Now we have a chance to help ourselves help the planet and it's ecology.
There are three main ways to use direct solar energy:
1. Electricity:
Commercial photovoltaic cells deliver, as electricity, approximately 15% of the solar energy that hits them. Technical improvements are steadily increasing the efficiency and reducing the cost.
2. Heating:
Technically simple solar heating panels can deliver, as useable heat, about 80% of the solar energy that hits them. Water, sometimes mixed with anti-freeze, is the usual medium for transferring the heat.
3. Drying:
Anyone who has used a clothes line will recognize a good drying day as one with a breeze and low relative humidity. It takes just a small temperature increase to cut the relative humidity of air in half, making all but rainy days good drying days. The required temperature increase is easily accomplished for high volumes of air with technically simple solar collectors.
Some information was borrowed from
Solar Energy Society of Canada Inc.
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