Solar Thermal

Unlike Solar PV that is dealing with electrons Solar thermal energy (STE) uses the heat from the sun.

We have created 3 solar thermal panels for heating some of the buildings on the farm. This simple concept pulls indoor air through a small duct into the bottom of the panel. The air then begins to rise at it gets heated by the suns energy. The warm air is then transferred back into the room through another duct at the top of the panel. There are no moving parts and therefore, not maintenance. With our first attempt we were able to get over 160 degrees fahrenheit which is a 100 degree differential between the intake and outtake. The total cost of building the panels was approximately $20 USD as most of the materials were found on the farm or otherwise freely obtained. You too can build these panels with from materials laying around your home.

Solar thermal panel attached to a home.

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The following photo illustrates the heat differential between the intake and outtake holes. And in fact while this temperature gauge goes as high at 160 degrees fahrenheit the thermal panels exceeded that on a regular basis, in direct sunlight. In this case the intake temperature was 57.6 degrees, the outtake was above 160 degrees (the gauge reads HI above 160 degrees) with the differential being over 150% between the two temps.