Before making the decision to invest into a solar solution, there is an obvious legitimate question to ask: How much energy saving (expressed in KW.h) will my investment generate? And how long will it take me to get back my money (payback period)?
This Blog describes the concept behind Thermal Storage for Solar Water Heating Application. It end up with a rule of thumb for every Canadian City instead of a Universal Rule.
In Canada, providing clean winter water for cattle is a challenge in cold weather, especially in regions without electricity for running a pump or tank heaters. In the past, livestock were turned out to summer pasture and allowed to walk through and drink from any slough, creek, river, or lake available to them. In the winter, livestock either ate snow, or holes were cut in the ice of these natural water sources for them to drink from. When these natural water sources were not available, dugouts were constructed.
Hydronic Heating and Cooling are returning to the medium to small sizes residential and commercial Buildings. Demand for Energy Efficient constructions, encompassing renewable energies, heat recovery as well as thermal storage is on the rise. Water remains the most abundant medium for storing and transferring heat to Buildings, Humans and various structures.
We live in a heating dominated climate, meaning that it’s colder outside than what we want inside for most of the year. How have we come to the decision that cooling is a bigger problem than heating? Increased use of early hourly energy modelling has identified overheating as a potential problem in highly insulated buildings. This is not new.
Our experience has shown that conserving heat can be achieved with fixed materials and no moving parts, but cooling a space conventionally requires electricity, cooling equipment, maintenance, and an equipment replacement cycle. Finding a passive way to deliver cooling services would be more resilient, as well as less costly for operations.
