Comments on: Solar Heating in Alaska http://www.solartubs.com/blog/index.php/soldotna-alaska/ Capture the power of the Sun! Tue, 29 Sep 2009 06:07:38 -0500 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 hourly 1 By: admin http://www.solartubs.com/blog/index.php/soldotna-alaska/comment-page-1/#comment-40 admin Mon, 01 Jun 2009 18:17:53 +0000 http://www.solartubs.com/blog/?p=60#comment-40 Solar heating can work very well in winter especially where there is snow. Because the white snow reflects the sun so well you can get a bost of about 40% in diffused sun radiation from snow. This helps make up for the lower sun angle and the short solar daylight hours. I suggest if you are trying to optimize for the winter that you place the solar thermal panels at a very verticle angle (wall mount is optimal). This will maximize the snow reflection and capture the sun's lower winter angle. Solar heating can work very well in winter especially where there is snow. Because the white snow reflects the sun so well you can get a bost of about 40% in diffused sun radiation from snow. This helps make up for the lower sun angle and the short solar daylight hours.

I suggest if you are trying to optimize for the winter that you place the solar thermal panels at a very verticle angle (wall mount is optimal). This will maximize the snow reflection and capture the sun’s lower winter angle.

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