Solar Water Heating Systems for Apartment

Solar water heater is mandatory for new buildings and apartments in cities and some states of India. Today property buyers and owners of apartment buildings are interested in new ways to lessen their water and electricity expenditures. A trend of “Eco Friendly Homes” or “green homes” are seen among builders and property buyers. The benefits of green homes are many. They help save energy, conserve water and recycle waste. Solar water heater is one such home appliance that runs on solar energy and saves you more than 50 per cent on your energy bills.

Solar water heaters are better alternative to water heaters that run on gas or other non renewable fossil fuels. Architects and builders have started installing solar water heater for new buildings and apartments. In some states government has made solar water heater mandatory for sanctioning the building plan.

Solar Water Heating System

Water heating is the largest single source of greenhouse gas emissions. Installing a climate friendly hot water system can save your energy bill and saves environment. The amount of energy, the sun emits every second is certainly incomparable to any other source of fossil fuel existing on earth. Solar water heaters are cost-effective way to generate hot water for your home. Solar water heating systems are designed to deliver the optimum amount of hot water for most of the year.

There are two types of solar water heating systems-active and passive system.

• Active systems use electric pumps, valves, and controllers to circulate water or other heat-transfer fluids through the collectors.
• Passive systems move household water or a heat-transfer fluid through the system without pumps. This makes them generally more reliable, easier to maintain, and possibly longer lasting than active systems.

A solar water heater is a long-term investment that will save you money and energy for many years. Although the initial cost of solar water heaters is higher than that of conventional water heaters, it consumes no cost as the fuel (sunshine) is free and they are environmentally friendly.

Suitability of Solar water heating systems

Solar water heating systems can be successfully installed on the terrace of apartment blocks in high rise buildings. Number of dwelling units, persons, number of bathrooms, frequency of hot water required, purpose etc should be considered while accessing the suitability of the solar water heating systems. The building may be fitted with either a single system of adequate capacity meeting the hot water needs for all the apartments or different smaller systems supplying hot water to a group of flats.

• Single system: This type of system is suitable for apartment complexes installing a single system of adequate capacity meeting the hot water needs for all the apartments. The system consists of a large storage tank and bank of solar collectors inter-connected through a pipe system. The hot water is supplied to the flats through a common pipe network. In this system the suppliers/ builders need to ensure the equal hot water sharing among the inmates of the flat. Over sizing of system capacity could be one solution.

• Individual or Smaller systems: Individual or small system is recommended for small apartment complex with limited number of dwelling units. The advantage with this system is that each house will be independent with regard to hot water requirement and hence there would be no problem regarding sharing of hot water. The main disadvantage of this system is that this system occupy more space on the terrace and hence may be not be possible to install systems for all owners in a building having large number of apartment blocks. This system may also be difficult due to requirement of longer and separate pipelines.

Installing solar water heater system

Installing a solar water heater yourself, might be a bit difficult. You need to have the knowledge of the local weather, the amount of sunlight that you’ll be receiving, safety criteria and the code requirements of the local apartment. Solar water heating systems include storage tanks and solar collectors. Solar water heaters normally do not require a lot of maintenance, yet you need to promptly perform a regular check of the entire system to avoid malfunctioning and damage.

• Before installing the solar water heater, consider your requirements and accordingly choose the right sized water heater. Ideally your solar heater panel should be installed where it receives the maximum amount of sunlight, both in the morning as well as the afternoon. The tilt of the solar panel is the most important factor while installing it, as the tilt itself decides the amount of solar energy that will be converted into a usable form of energy. You can refer to the instructor’s manual for a more detailed approach towards installing solar panels.

• Use PVC and water hose to connect your water system to the cold inlet of your solar heater, installing a 5 micron water filter in the line to filter sediments so that large dust particles, pebbles and sediments do not enter your water heating system and damage it.

• Connect one more set of pipes from the top of the heater that will go back to the regular water heater in the house, which acts as a backup unit and maintains the water warm until needed. Plumb the cold water energy in the house to the inlet of the solar storage tank, and the outlet of the solar storage tank to the inlet of the conventional water heater.

The amount of energy, the sun emits every second is certainly incomparable to any other source of fossil fuel existing on earth. In some states government has made solar water heater mandatory for sanctioning the building plan. Solar water heaters are cost-effective way to generate hot water for your home or apartment. Although the initial cost of solar water heaters is higher than that of conventional water heaters it is eco-friendly and save your energy bill. A solar water heater is a long-term investment that will save you money and energy for many years.

Disclaimer: The article contains data collected from various sources and the use of same is at readers discretion.