Environmental Impact of Domestic Solar Water and Space Heating Systems

Abstract

All nations of the world depend on fossil fuels for their energy needs. However the obligation to reduce CO2 and other gaseous emissions, in order to be in conformity with the Kyoto agreement is the reason why countries turn to non-polluting renewable energy sources. In this paper initially the pollution caused by the burning of fossil fuels is presented followed by a study of the environmental protection offered by two most widely used renewable energy systems, i.e., solar water heating and solar space heating. The results presented in this paper show that by using solar energy considerable amounts of greenhouse polluting gasses are saved. For the case of domestic hater heating system with electricity back-up the saving, compared to a conventional system, is more than 93% and with diesel backup is about 80%. In the case of space heating and hot water system the saving is about 40%. It should be noted however that in the latter much greater quantities of pollutant gasses are saved. Additionally, all systems investigated give positive and very promising financial indices. It can therefore be concluded that solar energy systems offer significant protection of the environment and should be employed whenever possible in order to achieve a sustainable future.