Quote:
Originally Posted by Austin
I am planning on building a solar hot water heating system, and would like to incorporate space heating along with it.
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In most cases, the amount of energy used to heat a house is several times greater than the energy required to heat water. So, usually you would be looking at solar space heating, with solar water heat as a side benefit. So you would size your solar components appropriately, in particular the number of collectors. For instance, if a home could get by with two 4 x 8 foot solar panels to heating domestic water, you might want eight to twenty panels to heat your house... then there's the other two to heat your water.
In your case, since you live in NC, space heating is not as large a burden as it might be in areas with much higher Heating Degree Days, like Minnesota, for instance.
Then there is the matter of soil temperature...
In your case, depending on where you live, the soil temp, at 20 feet and deeper is probably in the mid-60's. It will be somewhat lower than that at basement depth in the winter, but the heating load in your basement is not going to be so terribly high.
One heating idea you haven't rejected yet is radiant ceiling heat. Here's a photo of how it is done in an upstairs room:
You'd want to use aluminum spreader plates for efficiency.
-AC_Hacker