Active Solar Collection Technologies

Active solar refers to an older division of solar collection. Around the 1970s, there were so called passive solar systems which had few moving parts and there was everything else which were called active systems. Although I am not aware of any official body that has endorsed a meaning for the term, "active solar", I think most agree it is a simpler solar system used for  lower temperature collection. Typically, active solar systems are domestic hot water heating systems that involve a few pumps, a water tank and little else. The truth of the matter is that this level of technology is probably the only level that makes sense for most home owners at this time. Heating hot water is a tried and true technology that meets a real need that is relatively expensive to meet with conventional gas fired or electric powered heaters. For most households an active solar hot water heating system will pay for itself in two to three years and save you real money over the systems life time. Compare this to PV electric system which typically take 10 or more years to pay for themselves and may barely break even over their lifetime.

This is a short list of some of the different types of technologies that exist for Active Solar Collection.