Solar water heaters are usually used as a pre heater to conventional water heaters. The solar storage tanks are also of larger volume. The idea of the larger volume is that the solar tank is trying to store at least 1 days hot water usage. The solar tank on a sunny day will slowly heater the volume of hot water required for 24 hours of usage.

Q: “How is radiant heating different from traditional heating systems?”

A: “Radiant Heating differs quite a lot from forced air heat. The comfort achieved by radiant is mainly due to the fact that when radiant heat leaves the floor the heat radiates to colder objects using a wave form of energy. Heat flows to cold. This provides a very comfortable feeling almost like having an invisible blanket surrounding you.  This is unlike forced air heating which is heating molecules of air which are then transported by a fan to attempt to provide comfortable heat. Also hot air rises, if you check out your ceiling temperature it is usually 10-30 degrees warmer than the floor. All that heat lying at the ceiling is flowing from hot to cold through the attic insulation. With a radiant heating system it is usually cooler at the ceiling by up to 10 degrees. This is inherently more energy efficient. It’s no wonder that once you have a radiant heating system you would never go back to forced air. So as you can see radiant heating is more comfortable  and more energy efficient.”