Solar energy can be converted into three types of energy, which are mainly used for residential purposes. The three main types of converted energies are Solar Thermal Energy, Photovoltaic Solar Power, Concentrating Solar Power. Each one of them will be briefly described below.

Solar Thermal Energy

Solar thermal energy is the process of converting solar energy into solar heat and it has various applications that could be utilized in a home. Solar space heating, solar water heating, solar pool heating and solar thermal cooling are the main applications.

During the cold days of winters, instead of using a heater, solar heating process could be utilized to provide your home with warm heat, especially at empty spaces.

This process is done in two ways either through passive solar energy or through active solar energy. Passive means the natural way of letting heat in, that is architecturally designing your home to let heat flow into empty spaces. Active requires specific devices called solar collectors, which captures the sun’s energy for this purpose.

Solar water heating heats up water of the house. All that is required to do is to install a solar heating system that could be used for at most 40 years and you can get warm, hot water free of cost. This process too requires a solar collector and the transfer of heat to the water supply which will store the heated water.

Solar pool heating works in approximately the same way as that of solar water heating and solar thermal cooling is the process of converting heat to cool energy. How is that possible? Simply through the use of solar heated water, and an air conditioner. The air conditioner has a liquid that disintegrates an absorbent and a refrigerant. The refrigerant then gets compressed and evaporated to provide cooling for the home, thus eliminating the need of an electric air conditioner.

Photovoltaic Solar Power

This is the process of converting solar energy into electricity using specially designed solar cells. This process requires devices and equipments which changes heat to electricity and battery chargers are the best example of this process. The whole process itself is quite complicated to be discussed briefly. Photovoltaic is again branched out into photovoltaic cooling and photovoltaic solar lightning, the process of providing natural outdoor lightning.

Concentrating Solar Power

Concentrated solar power is mostly related to high degree of conversion to electricity and is mostly used at heavy plants and units rather than at a home. However it is the process that generates solar power electricity that is meant for commercial purposes.

Considering all these options, one can say that its not so hard to make full use of solar power and thus be able to reduce on fuel consumption as electricity.

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