There is provided a system for producing heat energy comprising: an electrolyzer for effecting electrolysis of water to produce an electrolysis product material including gaseous molecular hydrogen, and a furnace, fluidly coupled to the electrolyzer for receiving the gaseous molecular hydrogen of at least the electrolysis product material, and configured for combusting the received gaseous molecular hydrogen.

There is provided a system for producing heat energy comprising: an electrolyzer for effecting electrolysis of water to produce an electrolysis product material including gaseous molecular hydrogen, and a furnace, fluidly coupled to the electrolyzer for receiving the gaseous molecular hydrogen of at least the electrolysis product material, and configured for combusting the received gaseous molecular hydrogen.

Apparatuses and methods for using direct solar radiation. The apparatus may include a housing defining a window configured to transmit solar radiation and a secondary radiation source for transmitting a second radiation in response to the solar radiation via a non-transitory computer-readable medium having computer-readable instructions stored thereon and configured to be executed by a processor to measure the solar radiation and actuate the secondary radiation source.

A heating device, preferably for the combustion of biomass, in particular of pellets of biomass, in one aspect, includes a burner part and a heating part. The burner part includes a combustion chamber; a double-walled, internally hollow combustion-chamber wall, which has an upper opening leading above the combustion zone into the combustion chamber; a flue-gas duct which leads the flue gas downwards along the combustion chamber, wherein the flue-gas duct is followed by a heat-exchanger area including initially, a flat-tube flue-gas heat exchanger, then, a tertiary-air heat exchanger; a flue-gas ventilation stack, a radiant-heat exchanger located above the combustion chamber, a flue-gas flap at the upper end of the flue-gas duct, which, when open, connects the flue-gas duct to the stack. A flat-tube flue-gas heat exchanger of the heating part forms a heat-exchanger circuit with an exhaust-air heat exchanger with the same heat-transfer medium as the flat-tube flue-gas heat exchanger.

A method of operating a heating device includes heating air in a heating device chamber. The method further includes exhausting outgoing air from the heating device chamber via a first flow path through which the outgoing air flows in a first direction, and supplying incoming air to the heating device chamber via a second flow path through which the incoming air flows in a second direction opposite to the first direction. The latent heat in the outgoing air in the first flow path is transferred to the incoming air in the second flow path thereby condensing water vapor contained in the outgoing air to produce liquid water.

A method of operating a heating device includes heating air in a heating device chamber. The method further includes exhausting outgoing air from the heating device chamber via a first flow path through which the outgoing air flows in a first direction, and supplying incoming air to the heating device chamber via a second flow path through which the incoming air flows in a second direction opposite to the first direction. The latent heat in the outgoing air in the first flow path is transferred to the incoming air in the second flow path thereby condensing water vapor contained in the outgoing air to produce liquid water.

A solar energy thermostatic controller using a solid-state microcomputer that manages air mover(s) to supply heated air for building space heating. Methods includes microcomputer software for communicating with temperature sensors located at the solar heating source, the supply vent source and the building room/interior. The present invention thermostatic control device features a data logger to record temperatures and humidity history, and elapsed time usage history of solar heated air available from attics and crawl spaces; or solar collectors mounted in or on walls, rooftops, or exterior locations. The thermostatic control device manages use of limited solar heated air for building environmental control. Program controlled temperature set points manage an HVAC blower to gather solar heated air during the daily sunlight solar excursion and to control shutdown of the supply system when solar heated air temperature falls below present room/interior temperature. Methods include permanent memory storage of historical data.

A controlled environment enclosure features a heating and cooling system and a control system linked to the heating and cooling system for control of same. The control system being operable to switch between an environmental control mode for achieving user-prescribed environmental conditions within the interior space and a sterilization/pasteurization mode for heating contents of the internal space to values within a range sufficiently elevated above the prescribed environmental conditions to sterilize/pasteurize said contents of the internal space. The built-in sterilization/pasteurization function reduces or eliminates the need for personnel to physically wash down the interior space of the enclosure with cleaning chemicals.

A condensate drain system for a heating, ventilation, and/or air conditioning (HVAC) system includes a heat exchanger having a plurality of tubes configured to receive ambient air and fluidly coupled to a drain via a conduit, a valve positioned along the conduit between the plurality of tubes and the drain, where the valve is configured to enable a flow of condensate from within the plurality of tubes toward the drain in an open position and the block the flow in a closed position, and a controller configured to adjust a position of the valve based on feedback indicative of an operational state of the HVAC system.