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LIFE: HOMES
Local resident cuts energy costs with solar heating panel
Jay Gaskin stands next to the solar heating panel that helps warm his two-car garage at his home in Huntington.
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HUNTINGTON — Nothing feels better than the sun beating down on a cold winter day. That same feeling of well-being can be attained when the sun helps cut the costs of heating a home or shaving some dollars off the energy bill. Solar energy and solar heat can be quite expensive when bought outright and installed by professionals, but there is another option that does not involve the professional.
It’s called “do it yourself.”’
Jay Gaskins of Huntington took on such a project and built a solar heating panel to help warm his two-car garage.
“I just wanted something to take the chill off of the garage,” he said. “The drawback for my panel is that it only works on sunny days. Right now, it only gets to 40 or 45 degrees, but I think I am going to install another panel, and it will increase that.”
Solar energy and solar heat can be a project an amateur can tackle. There are numerous Web sites with instructions and advice on the Internet, plus books that address the subject. These resources maintain building your own solar apparatus is not that hard to do. Some give great step-by-step directions, and some just generally discuss the project. Those with blogs or places for comments and advice are valuable so a homeowner can get a sense as to how hard it really will be to accomplish the project from those with experience.
Gaskins said the materials to build the panel were inexpensive.
“All the supplies for the project can be bought at Home Depot,” he said.
And how did he figure out how to do the project?
“I looked on the Internet, adjusted it to how I thought it might work best plus got some advice from a friend who had a done a similar smaller unit,” he said. “It is a passive heat system and doesn’t store the energy.”
Gaskin said his unit doesn’t keep the solar energy, but there are systems that do that. They will cost more in that equipment for storage and distribution of energy would be included in the system. The cost is not prohibitive, but more than is involved in a passive heat system.
Experts maintain that one of the biggest challenges to solar energy and heat when doing it yourself is to be able to build a panel that can withstand the elements for many years. If you have it right, it is good for a very long time.
If you don’t want to start from scratch, there are kits for sale. Getting supplies such as solar cells from eBay may or may not work, and there are no guarantees in most auction houses.
Prior to doing the project, keep in mind that if a solar system is professionally installed, there are some guarantees and assurances not available when doing it yourself. The trade-off is the cost.
Solar heat and energy are ideas whose time has come in this day of expensive energy. Sunshine is free, and if a person can harness that energy with a do-it-yourself project, it is a win-win situation.
Clean energy at negligible cost would appeal to most people, but they should definitely do their homework prior to launching into such a project.
