"Free" heat for the house. Geothermal energy and solar collector: what is better to implement in your home?
The desire to receive something out of thin air (that is, to take a lot and give nothing away) is human.
- At the same time, some think only about instant benefits, not thinking about the future.
- And someone, on the contrary, is ready to give everything now in order to get what they need in many years.
Friends, I am no exception. And even the fact that I build a house with my own hands suggests that I need some kind of benefit (well, no interest). But at the same time, I only hope for it, not knowing whether I will be able to get it or not.
In the course of my global undertaking, I am simultaneously drawn to other experiments that simply lure with their ideas...
(I did the water purification system and the recuperator with my own hands)
Well, how to get past the inexhaustible sources of energy???
When I was just starting to build my house, I came across information about geothermal energy sources, and their use in heating private houses.
✅ The principle is based on taking heat from the bowels of the earth (this is either a well deep into the earth, or a horizontal option) and converting it into thermal energy to heat the house. Everything is arranged according to the principle of operation of a refrigerator or air conditioner. Well, as if nothing new and supernatural.
❗❗❗ The only thing is completely different volumes and capacities.
- Many meters of pipelines underground, and a powerful heat pump (which, although simple on the diagram, is in reality complex equipment).
- Labor-intensive calculations and installation of all equipment by qualified specialists.
These factors make this whole idea very costly at the moment.
And maintenance, and wear and tear of equipment (which are inevitable), and to this questionable maintainability (especially the part that is underground), raise the question of the payback of all these investments, and the overall benefit, into a big question.
Against the backdrop of all this, the idea of a solar collector seems much more realistic.
I recently learned about this technology.
Thanks to one of my readers who wrote a comment in one of my articles, where I described my homemade recuperator.
Here the idea is to directly use the energy of the sun to heat either the air (incoming to the house) or to heat the water.
Not to be confused with solar panels. There, solar radiation is converted into electricity, and the processes are more complex. Which ultimately affects the complexity and cost of equipment.
- The solar collector uses simple physics - surface heating. For this, no additional processes are used that require energy consumption.
- In addition, the amount of work is not so large (for home use), and most importantly, there is an opportunity to do everything yourself.
And personally for me, there is only one doubt.
Instability, especially in my "gray" Leningrad region. Of course, it happens that the weather pleases with the sun for several days in a row, but most of the time, the weather is cloudy. And in the winter season, the activity of the sun is generally rarely manifested.
At the same time, I know that the sun transmits its energy through the clouds, but what it will be enough for, and what dimensions of the collector should be, remains unclear 🤷♂️...
But still, this experiment is quite feasible. Namely, there is an opportunity without calculations (as I like 😎), in practice, to make a prototype, and from there get specific results that can be used to draw specific conclusions.
After my homemade recuperator, it will be the next development 😜.
Friends, as always, I look forward to your advice and recommendations. They are always beneficial.
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