Solar Water Heating Radiant Floor Superinsulated House

If you have a hydronic radiant in floor heating system your solar hot water can then be used to heat your home.

Solar water heating radiant floor superinsulated house.

Hydronic radiant floor heating. Many hydronic systems use the same system to heat both the fluid for the in floor heat and your hot water supply. Normally a large solar heated storage tank with electric gas or oil backup supplies hot water to the radiant system and most often provides for domestic needs as well. After considering the pros and cons of the very popular ductless minisplit the author decided a hydronic radiant floor heating system was a better choice.

You can use any type of water heating system with a radiant floor system but the capacity of hot water that you use goes up dramatically with a radiant heat floor system. His mechanical room includes an electric resistance water heater to supply domestic hot water and a wall mounted electric boiler for the radiant floor circuits. Ecohome s new demo house will be a slab on grade with solar radiant floor heating powered by air tubes heated with air solar panels ingenious. Earlier solar heating systems would first heat a storage tank and then distribute the stored heat with radiant heating tubes.

When solar energy is used directly to provide radiant heat the radiant floor system cannot be used by the backup heating system as this use would compromise the solar storage. The solar system can directly offset a portion of the fuel required to heat the water for the radiant floor system by at least 30 when compared to conventional forced air systems. Both the solar system and the radiant floor systems are environmentally friendly due to the saving they provide in the consumption of fossil fuels. A well designed passive solar home first reduces heating and cooling loads through energy efficiency strategies and then meets those reduced loads in whole or part with solar energy.

Solar water heaters are commonly used as heat sources for radiant floor systems in regions where an abundant solar resource is available. Ecohome is in the process of building our next demonstration low energy house and to do so we have partnered. Because of the small heating loads of modern homes it is very important to avoid oversizing south facing. So the attraction of a solar system also goes up dramatically because you get much cheaper hot water per btu.

Passive solar design takes advantage of a building s site climate and materials to minimize energy use. Read all about it. At the very least radiant heating reduces your carbon footprint.