How much can you save

Space Heating with FREE Solar Energy

Wherever you live in the world, and whatever your heating fuel, we can give you an estimate to what you will save with solar air heating! 

How to Read the Solar Air Heater Performance Tables

The links to the right feature downloadable PDF tables which calculate how a solar air heater will perform in a room, with a double pane window, at a room temperature of 70°F (21°C), in a city at a specific latitude. (Important for the winter sun orientation.) If your state/province or location is not listed, pick a site closest on the same latitude as where you live. (We are adding locations all the time and if your location is not listed, let us know.) For each city the annual average temperature and heating months are listed. The annual heating months are used to calculate the fuel you use to keep the room at the set temperature. The heating zone map will give you an idea of heating costs throughout the country. The solar air heater also uses the annual heating months but since the sun does not shine all the time in most cities, it also factors the amount of sunny days during these heating months. Winter (65-70%) Spring and Fall (70-80%) Summer (not calculated if it is not a heating month) (80-90%).

Select the heating fuel you use to heat the room or your home, from the list of PDF files on the right. There are four tables that compare the fuel you heat your room or house with to the performance of a solar air heater for that site and weather conditions. Each fuel table ELECTRICITY, NATURAL GAS, PROPANE, AND HEATING OIL, shows the latest unit price for the city and the total fuel cost to heat the room for the annual heating months. The annual fuel cost is also shown for the solar air heater that uses free solar energy and the cost of the home fuel to make up for the non-sunny days during the heating months. The difference between the normal heating fuel used with no solar and the heating fuel used with a solar air heater is the annual solar savings for the heating months.

A simple payback is calculated by dividing the manufacturer's suggested retail price with the annual cost with solar to show the number of years it will take to pay for the cost of the solar heater in fuel savings. The 15 year fuel savings give you an idea of what a solar air heater can save, where energy is increasing 10% per year, inflation is 2% and a discount of 5%. (Take a look on the Electricity Table at the variation in electricity costs per kwh that is happening all over the country.)

For most international regions we use a Government of Canada/NRC CanmetENERGY developed program and NASA solar data to show the annual fuel savings for just those months which would require a heater. (www.retscreen.net)

Technology and products covered under patents USA 8,863,741, Sept 22,2014, Canada 2,736,792 Jan 22, 2013 and world patents pending.