Solar air heating is a solar thermal technology in which the energy from the sun, insolation, is captured by an absorbing medium and used to heat air. Solar air heating is a renewable energy heating technology used to heat or condition air for buildings or process heat applications. It is typically the most cost-effective out of all the solar technologies, especially in commercial and industrial applications, and it addresses the largest usage of building energy in heating climates, which is space heating and industrial process heating.

Solar air collectors can be divided into two categories:

Solar collectors for air heat may be classified by their air distribution paths or by their materials, such as glazed or unglazed. For example:

The term "unglazed air collector" refers to a solar air heating system that consists of an absorber without any glass or glazing over top. The most common type of unglazed collector on the market is the transpired solar collector. This technology was invented and patented by Canadian engineer John Hollick of Conserval Engineering Inc. in the 1990s, who worked with the U.S. Department of Energy (NREL) and Natural Resources Canada on the commercialization of the technology around the world. The technology has been extensively monitored by these government agencies, and Natural Resources Canada developed the feasibility tool RETScreen to model the energy savings from transpired solar collectors. John Hollick and the transpired solar collector were honored by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) in 2014 as being one of the best inventions of the industrialized age, alongside Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, the steam engine and the Panama Canal – in a New York exhibition recognizing the best inventions, inventors and engineering feats of the past two centuries.

Several thousand transpired solar collector systems have been installed in a variety of commercial, industrial, institutional, agricultural, and process applications in over 35 countries around the world. The technology was originally used primarily in industrial applications such as manufacturing and assembly plants where there were high ventilation requirements, stratified ceiling heat, and often negative pressure in the building. The first unglazed transpired collector in the world was installed by Ford Motor Company on their assembly plant in Oakville, Canada.

With the increasing drive to install renewable energy systems on buildings, transpired solar collectors are now used across the entire building stock because of high energy production (up to 500-600 peak thermal Watts/square metre), high solar conversion (up to 90%) and lower capital costs when compared against solar photovoltaic and solar water heating.

Unglazed air collectors heat ambient (outside) air instead of recirculated building air. Transpired solar collectors are usually wall-mounted to capture the lower sun angle in the winter heating months as well as sun reflection off the snow and achieve their optimum performance and return on investment when operating at flow rates of between 4 and 8 CFM per square foot (72 to 144 m3/h.m2) of collector area.

The exterior surface of a transpired solar collector consists of thousands of tiny micro-perforations that allow the boundary layer of heat to be captured and uniformly drawn into an air cavity behind the exterior panels. This solar heated ventilation air is drawn into the building’s ventilation system from air outlets positioned along the top of the collector and the air is then distributed in the building via conventional means or using a solar ducting system.