Active Solar Design Resources
I’m looking for technical resources to better understand active solar design applications.
Can anyone confirm whether studying the EESI website's publications would be thorough enough for PPD & PDD? I've read through this, but it's very high level and seems to be geared more toward policy vs technical knowledge: https://www.eesi.org/topics/solar/description
Specifically, wanting to learn more about:
- Types of Active Systems: photovoltaic arrays and understanding the different panel types
- How active solar can be efficiently used for different building systems (electricity, powering equipment, water heaters, etc), and why one type of building system is a better candidate for being solar-powered vs others
Specifically, I'm looking for resources that NCARB would deem authoritative on the topic. (If I try to Google it, I wind up on a company site trying to sell me solar panels.) I don't presently own the book Heating, Cooling, and Lighting, but I'm wondering if active solar is covered in good detail and would be worth picking up a used copy.
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MEEB (Mechanical and Electrical Equipment for Buildings) is one of the recommended resources that cover active solar heating as part of its broader discussion of environmental control systems. MEEB’s diagrams and visuals also make it easier to understand building systems for PPD, so it can be worth buying as a reference to skim for key ideas rather than reading cover to cover.
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Thanks! I see MEEB mentioned pretty much all the time, so I will lean on that.
Aside from just knowing the best practices for panel orientations, angles to make them most efficient for various times of year, etc .... I'm having trouble closing the loop on my understanding of how solar energy is actually stored, and then utilized in various ways for different systems -- like, how we analyze whether the potential gains from a solar array design will meet whatever system's loads we are designing for. (Maybe we don't need to, and I'm overthinking?) It all feels very theoretical and loosey-goosey when it comes to actually defining or calculating the energy that can be gathered via photovoltaics.
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Hi K,
For the ARE you're overthinking it. Questions are answerable in 2-4 min tops, using available info. If you know best practice for orientation & angles for the most efficiency generally vs at different times of year, that should be more than enough. The ARE tends to run at least 5 years behind best practice because the questions are sourced from the standard industry reference texts - which are updated slowly, to say the least.
These folks know a lot about electrification generally and have a ton of well-written and insightful whitepapers if you're curious in the broader sense. The task with going electric is as much reducing usage as it is adding PVs. California generally has a longer history of best-practices than most other parts of the country, so most of the experts with serious depth are out that way.
Best,
Ralph, the Amber Book Team
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