Solar-Powered Heating Systems: This is how they have evolved through centuries
We bet you are not foreign to the sight of arrays of solar panels on buildings, residential complexes and even hills. These panels use sunlight to generate electricity that can be used to power houses and other appliances! Now, we all know that solar energy is unlimited, economical and is ‘green’ energy owing to its sustainable and clean source. Given all these factors and considering the high electricity demand, solar devices continue to be the need of the hour.
This renewable energy source has found widespread applications in daily life. One such use is for heating homes. Did you know that the first solar-powered device to heat homes was invented by a lady called Mária Telkes? And just like the device, the history and facts surrounding solar heaters are no less interesting!
The first solar-powered heating systems
Do you know what was heated with the first solar-powered heating system and when? Well, the answer is water in 1896. The device used was a simple black box filled with water and then kept in sunlight. Why black, you’ll wonder! Well, of all the colours, black is known to absorb the maximum amount of heat, which, in turn, heats the water inside. The major drawback was that it took an entire day for the water to heat up, even in ideal conditions! Also, the water would rapidly lose heat during the night, as there was no way to trap the heat inside (insulation).
In 1896, a man named Clarence Kemp invented a solar water heater in Baltimore, USA, that could retain heat. Following this milestone, solar heating became commercially viable on a wide scale. The first batch of water heaters Kemp created involved a hot water collector inside a wooden box. In 1909, William Bailey, an American inventor, came up with an even better solar water heating system that was more economical and compact. Bailey’s was the first system that placed the water tank on the roof and the sunlight collector underneath it. One significant advantage of Bailey’s system was that people could now use hot water during the night as well!
Solar-powered heating system by Mária Telkes
Now you know how solar-powered water heating systems were created. But what about using solar power for heating houses? Well, there exists such a device and the credit for the invention goes to the American physicist Mária Telkes. Born in Budapest, Hungary, in 1900, Mária Telkes was an American physical chemist and biophysicist. She is well-known for her work on solar-powered systems. She invented many devices capable of storing energy from sunlight. Together with Eleanor Raymond, she designed the first residence heated using solar power in 1948! The house was built in Dover, Massachusetts, and had box-shaped solar collectors to capture sunlight that warmed the air inside. The warm air transferred heat to Glauber’s salts (crystallised sodium sulphate) for storage and later use.
Soldiers used solar distillers during World War II
During the World War II, particularly the battles in the Pacific Ocean, U.S. soldiers were left stranded on the seashore for days. They faced a scarcity of drinking water, which threatened their survival. It was also during this war that Mária Telkes was working with the U.S. Office of Scientific Research and Development. Naturally, Telkes put a foot forward and created one of her most important inventions: A solar distiller capable of converting seawater into drinking water using solar heat. The distiller could vaporise seawater and recondense it to drinking water and saved the lives of many soldiers. Later on, this system was also scaled up to meet the water demands of the Virgin Islands.