If you have been to Turkey, you probably noticed that in some Turkish cities, the roofs of houses are dotted with barrels and wide plates. If you do not delve deeply into this issue, it may seem that these are solar panels for generating electricity, but this is not entirely true. Yes, these are solar concentrators, but they perform a slightly different function.
If you still ask, for example, a Turkish guide what it is, then you will not get an answer from them. So much he "got" them. And they usually say that this is a moonshine still, having fun over tourists.
In general, there is no centralized hot water supply in Turkey, just like there is no centralized heating. This is due to the fact that Turkey is a southern country and there are a lot of warm days in it and there is no point in maintaining a centralized heating system. Therefore, the following options are used to heat water:
- Gas water heater (gas)
- Instantaneous water heater (electricity)
- Storage water heater (electricity)
All of them use expensive resources, which is not always acceptable for Turkish families. Therefore, solar concentrators are traditionally used there for heating water.
The principle of their work is familiar to many summer residents, who made an outdoor shower from a container painted black. But such designs are primitive and have a very low efficiency. So, in order to heat water for a family of two or three, a supply of hot water is needed and it is formed in an insulated barrel installed on the roof. A "solar concentrator" in the form of tubes or plates is connected to this tank through a pipeline. Water circulates through them due to gravity, as in our gravity heating systems. That is, the liquid heated from the sun is displaced by a cold, denser one from the lower part of the collector. And this process is repeated, heating a large volume of water.
The only drawback of this system is weather dependence, although Turkey has 300 sunny days a year, but all however, in the winter months, there is little free radiant energy and, accordingly, the water is no longer so hot in hubs. Therefore, a heating element is either inserted into the barrel, or there is already some kind of water heater in the apartment. At my dacha, I assembled such a primitive system:
She already gave about three liters of water, enough to wash the dishes with a thin stream or wash your hands and face. And if you apply the technologies described above, then hot water, at least in summer, will be sufficient for washing in your summer cottage.
Mikhailov Victor, your author on "Ya.Dzen"