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Thermal collectors, at best, can capture about 90% of the sun's energy. Practically speaking a bit less. Solar panels, at their best, can capture about 25% of
by jaggederest 3y ago
Thermal collectors, at best, can capture about 90% of the sun's energy. Practically speaking a bit less.
Solar panels, at their best, can capture about 25% of the sun's energy as electricity. There exist heat pumps with a coefficient of performance (COP) such that the system as a whole captures more heat i.e. COP >4
I'm not sure the claim is absolutely true universally, especially in challenging environments, but in a broad sense it is true that turning sunlight into electricity and then using that electricity to power a heat pump has a bunch of advantages over direct solar thermal, not least of which is air conditioning.
- runeks 3y ago> Solar panels, at their best, can capture about 25% of the sun's energy as electricity. There exist heat pumps with a coefficient of performance (COP) such that the system as a whole captures more heat i.e. COP >4 Am I understanding it correct that the efficiency is, in this case (25%; COP >4), greater than 100%?
- jaggederest 3y agoYes, because it is moving scavenged heat to where it is useful. So 1/4 of the energy comes from the electricity, the other 3/4 from ambient atmosphere.