Hidden Solar Collectors for Your House
How about a solar collector that integrates right into your house's architecture? This clever system, by Dawn Solar, is installed below a metal roof, so you can’t tell it is there. The sun heats the metal roof, which in turn heats fluid-filled tubes below the roof. These tubes transfer the heat to your domestic water system or radiant floors. Dawn Solar also provides systems that produce solar electricity and solar hot water from the same area on the roof or wall. When coupled to a photovoltaic system the their system improves the output of the PV system by removing excess heat from the roof area and transferring the heat to space heat or hot water. Their systems can be coupled to DC pumps (avoiding the loss that occurs in converting the PV panel output from DC to AC) that in turn can be powered by the PV panels, further reducing energy consumption.
They have working installations in Colorado, Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Texas, and Vermont. Systems are scheduled for installation in Arizona, Florida, New Jersey, New York and Utah later in 2005.