How to Use Solar Panels for Cooling Your Home
Last Updated: Mar 17, 2025Using the light and the heat from the sun to cool your home might seem a bit irrational, given that the sun is the largest source of heat on our planet. For centuries, the sun has been used as a natural source of warmth for hot water heating and the passive heating of the homes we live in. However, recent technologies have made it possible for homeowners to utilize the sun for the cooling of their homes. Below, we offer a complete guide for using solar panels and solar energy to cool your home this summer.
Table of Contents
- What Is The Environmental Cost of Air Conditioning?
- Bottom line
What Is The Environmental Cost of Air Conditioning?
According to the US Department of Energy, air conditioners account for 6 percent of all energy used in the United States and 12 percent of residential energy usage. With air conditioners in almost nine out of every ten American homes, our homes' artificial cooling accounts for an enormous amount of carbon dioxide emissions (assuming the home sources its electricity from carbon-intensive energy like coal or natural gas, which is how most utilities produce electricity).
Air conditioners are one of the primary sources of hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) emissions. HFCs are mainly used today in both refrigeration and air conditioning equipment. While HFCs was originally incorporated as a more environmentally friendly alternative to the CFCs that were found to be destroying our ozone layer, today, HFCs are a major contributor to global warming. Why?
HFC emissions are known to be 100 to 3,000 times more potent than carbon dioxide and can stay in the atmosphere for hundreds of years. While HFCs in the atmosphere are relatively low compared to other greenhouse gasses, the primary sources of HFCs come from the manufacture of air conditioners and refrigeration equipment, leakage from these devices, and the end-of-life disposal of these units.
At the same time, air conditioning is a modern-day comfort and convenience that is increasingly necessary in a world affected by global warming. Some reports suggest that the increasing frequency and intensity of summer heatwaves worldwide could send mortality rates from high temperatures skyrocketing by as much as 2,000 percent. So how can we stay comfortably and safely cooler in increasingly hot summers while minimizing the environmental impact of artificially cooling our homes? Remarkably, solar technology offers three different ways to help keep your home cool this summer.
1. Solar Panels for Summer Air Conditioning
Solar photovoltaic (PV) technology has the ability to capture sunlight and use cells to turn that light into electricity. The PV cell is made up of layers of semiconducting material, with silicon as the preferred material. The light that shines on the cell subsequently creates an electric field across the layers, causing electricity to flow. When combined with energy-efficient home construction methods, solar panels can essentially create a Net Zero energy home or a home that produces as much (or more) energy than what it uses.
Tobias Roberts
Tobias runs an agroecology farm and a natural building collective in the mountains of El Salvador. He specializes in earthen construction methods and uses permaculture design methods to integrate structures into the sustainability of the landscape.
