Solar energy in St Petersburg

Solar heating, hot water and gas boiler in St Petersburg, Florida. This time we see an installation of solar hot water for a 4 person 200 m2 house.

The challenge was to integrate the plates and try to avoid breaking the aesthetics of the development, so we decided to put them directly on the roof. The hot water generated by the solar plates is stored in a 300 liter tank.

>From there, it will be used for heating or hot water by an automated switchboard. This switchboard is responsible for evaluating the available and the actual demand of hot water. In this light, the switchboard will direct the gas boiler to provide the extra power, if needed.

There are two main types of solar energy. Solar thermal which heats the house drinking water and can also be used for heating, although in that case, it does not cover 100% of the annual demand and needs to be complemented with a backup energy generating system.

The other is solar photovoltaic, although this is not used for the production of energy in homes, unless it´s in rural dwellings far from the grid. Its use is more oriented towards the production of electricity for sale to the electric company, which is subsidized (subsidies depend on State)

There are also other lesser-known types of solar energy, such as thermoelectric, which utilizes the heat to generate electricity and is used only in a handful of commercial plants around the world, as it has been in the developing stages, until recently. Another type is solar cookers, which have not yet had much impact in the Western world, although in countries with supply problems, such as India, it is increasingly widespread. In fact, in India, there is a dining room of a temple that supplies to 18,000 people, daily, thanks solely and exclusively to the use of 108 Scheffler reflectors, a type of solar concentrator created especially for the use in developing countries, which are very simple to manufacture and the material, easy to find, locally.

With regard to the names given to solar plates outside the sector, there is some ambiguity. When we use the terms of collector plates, we can be talking about both photovoltaic and thermal plates. If we say 'collector', we always refer to a thermal plate, just as if we say 'module', we are always talking about photovoltaic plates.

Solar thermal energy can be harnessed to be used for both, hot water and heating, although in the latter case and for technical reasons, the installation is not set up to cover 100% of the winter heating demand.. It is necessary to combine it with another energy generating system.

Some clients come to us when they are still planning the construction of their home, to consult us on the most efficient systems available.

We always recommend the use of solar energy. A s a backup system, we recommend a biomass boiler or a heat pump. The first is recommended because it is more environmentally friendly and cheaper than gas or diesel boilers. In the case of heat pumps, they consume electricity, but are highly efficient devices that generate a lot more energy than they consume, thanks to absorbing the energy from its surroundings. A heat pump moves heat from one place to another, according to our needs. If reversible, it absorbs heat from the outside to provide heating in winter and expels the heat from inside the house, to the outside, during the summer. A refrigerator, for example, is a non-reversible heat pump that draws heat from inside the fridge, that´s why the back of the fridge is always hot. It´s not that the refrigerator produces cold, but that it expels heat.

As a heating system, we recommend radiant floor heating. The heating is based on the same heating principle as that used by the Romans at the beginning of the first millennium, or that of the Castilian glories, but, rather than just hot air, it uses a system of hot water pipes that run under the floor of the house. The comfort level is much higher than when using radiators, since the heat distribution is more evenly spread. In addition, the people are nearer the heat source, regardless of where they are in the room. There are a number of other advantages over radiator heating that can be seen by checking our products section.