Tag Archive for: solarwaterheaters

Unlike pv panels, which can power your home, solar thermal panels are mainly used to heat water. But they’re smaller and more efficient.

Solar water heaters were cool in 1980s. They could be again.

In the early 198os, my dad installed a solar thermal panel on our roof in Florida. For a 5-year-old, the big black square looked like a portal into the future. The device, essentially a glass box with metal water pipes running through it, converted sunlight into hot water. By trapping solar energy like a greenhouse, it heated the water to a scorching 180 degrees Fahrenheit.

It furnished much of the hot water for a family of four. “We had no trouble with it,” my dad tells me. “It was still working when we sold the house 10 years later.”
But today, hardly anyone is using these solar water heaters even as photovoltaic (PV) panels have popped up on the roofs of nearly 4 million American homes.

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Source: The Washington Post

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The solar water heaters in Hato Chami school allow students to take hot showers and make it easier for staff to boil water when preparing meals.

Panama taps solar energy to heat water and reduce deforestation

A few dozen kilometres inland from northern Panama’s coast is the Hato Chami school.

Set amid winding roads, green trees and stunning mountains, it has more than 1,000 pupils, most of whom hail from one of Panama’s largest indigenous groups, the Ngäbe.

The single-storey school stands out from other buildings in the impoverished Hato Chami region because of the solar water heaters fitted to its roof. The recently installed devices allow students to take hot showers and make it easier for staff to boil water when preparing meals.

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Source: UN Environment Programme

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