Solar space heating / central heating? Sunlight, or more precisely the shortage of it, is the reason why it is colder at night and in winter. It is a meteorological reality, from which we cannot escape, that, in June in UK, there is typically six times more sunlight available than in December. So solar can do space heating extremely well provided that you are happy to have most of the heat arriving when you don’t want it: by day and in summer. Inter-seasonal solar hot water storage, where the rock beneath your home is used as a giant storage heater, to be emptied in winter, is technically feasible, but only for communities of perhaps 100 homes or more because of what engineers call “constraints due to the ratio of surface loss to storage volume”. Claims that solar may offer cost-effective contributions to solar space heating should be treated with caution unless the technology is relatively low cost. The further north you go the longer becomes the central heating season, which means that Scotland is a significantly better candidate for solar central heating than southern England.
One new and sensibly priced air heating solution is MacGregor Solar’s “Solar Slates”. So even in solar water heating applications where the water is used for washing and bathing, between 30-70% of your energy may still need to come from other sources. The key points are that solar water heating gets rid of fuel, but not boilers and that solar water heating usually offers better value for money than solar central heating.
Solar keymark certified
Micropower council
Renewable Energy Association
Association for Environment Conscious Building