Solar Heating and Cooling systems have been around for a long time, their use in Europe and other countries is wide spread in comparison to the United States. The U.S. has taken a long time to adopt these technologies but the trends are on the increase. Solar heating and cooling systems have a relatively high initial cost when compared to more conventional methods so it makes sense to take whatever measures available to reduce the size of the solar requirements. Insulation and weatherization of the home or building must be as effective as possible and meet the highest energy efficiency standards possible. This will reduce the overall load that must be accounted for when designing the solar system and reduce it’s size considerably.Logically the sun has limits for when it can actually produce the energy so almost any solar system is basically an auxiliary or supplemental system only. Unless you have an extensive amount of storage space for the heat that is gathered, in the form of water tanks usually but this can also be concrete, rocks and anything that absorbs and holds onto heat or even batteries, you will not be able to count on that system continuously.There are basically four uses or sources of energy for solar technology and two types; Obviously there is electricity through solar cells or solar voltaic panels also known as photovoltaic, this energy can be used directly or stored to heat or cool any facility as well as provide power. Batteries are used to store the energy and are limited in their capacity so normally you would not want to place a high load such as heating or cooling on this storage method. The panels can also be set up to back feed to the utility and depending on the agreement credits or even rebates can be gained. The cost of photovoltaic technologies is slowly catching up with demand but the payback is still fairly high and in some cases can extend as far as 30 to 50 years or more. Of the remaining three uses two are highly viable alternatives and the third is usually the least cost effective...
