Solar Heating Tubes and Green Energy

March 22, 2010
By Craig Axelrod

Climate change concerns many of today's consumers, and using solar heating tubes and green energy to heat your building's water can go a long way towards addressing potential tenants' concerns. Whether you own residential apartments, commercial property, or an industrial building, your potential clientele has been hearing for a long time that we all need to do more to protect the environment and move towards energy independence. Installing and utilizing green technology whenever possible speaks volumes about your ethics to potential renters. And, the fact that it's the right thing to do for the environment isn't the only reason to install solar heating tubes. The fact is you will save a significant percentage on your gas or electric expenses by reducing your dependence on these sources of heat for your building's hot water consumption. And any savings can be used to increase your profit margins, make you more competitive by passing savings along to tenants, or both.

Solar heated water is not a new concept, of course. Attempts to use solar power to heat water have been with us since the late 19th century. However, while steady strides have made to improve the available technology, until recently solar power was of limited use for heating in cold or cloudy regions. And these are the places where people need to cut heating costs the most. The recent development of vacuum sealed solar heating tubes, however, are allowing more and more people to make use of this green energy technology.

Solar heating tubes' cylindrical shape allows them to be positioned so that part of their surface is constantly facing the sun, allowing the cylinders to absorb considerably more solar energy than their predecessors, the flat solar panels. Because they are able to glean the sun's power more efficiently, they are able to harvest enough solar power to heat your building's water even when the day is overcast or cold. The fact that they are vacuum sealed further helps their efficiency because vacuums provide the ideal situation for insulating the heat source. This means that less heating power is lost. The heating element on the inside of the tube can be blazing hot, while the outside of the tube, insulated by the vacuum, is still cool to the touch. All of this leads to more of the solar power being retained and used for its intended purpose, heating the water in your building.

Your building's boiler system or hot water heater uses up a significant portion of the electricity and/or gas used in your building. You can reduce your energy bills, and those of your tenants, significantly by installing solar heating tubes and letting renewable, green energy work for you. You only need to purchase and install the solar heating tubes once, and the savings can last a lifetime.

There's never been a better time than now to begin employing green energy sources like solar water heating tubes. Governments all over the world are offering significant incentives for building owners to install green technology that makes use of renewable, sustainable energy sources. Many governments allow tax rebates that cover all or most of the costs of installing these money and energy saving features. Eventually, green energy is going to be the order of the day for all building owners. It's better to get on board now, while the government will help defray some of the costs.