Long term performance of thermosyphon solar water heaters

The performance of 6 thermosyphon solar water heaters was measured while the systems were supplying typical domestic hot water loads. The effect of system configuration, daily load draw off times and off-peak vs continuous boosting was studied. In contrast to forced circulation systems the performance of thermosyphon systems was found to be best if a morning peak load pattern was used. Operation with off-peak boosting was found to improve the annual contribution by 14 per cent.     

Performance and economics of annual storage solar heating systems

Annual storage is used with active solar heating systems to permit storage of summer-time solar heat for winter use. This paper presents the results of a comprehensive computer simulation study of the performance of active solar heating systems with long-term hot water storage. A unique feature of this study is the investigation of systems used to supply backup heat to passive solar and energy-conserving buildings, as well as to meet standard heating and hot water loads.

Findings show that system performance increases linearly as storage volume increases, up to the point where the storage tank is large enough to store all heat collected in summer. This point, the point of “unconstrained operation”, is the likely economic optimum. In contrast to diurnal storage systems, systems with annual storage show only slightly diminishing returns as system size increases. Annual storage systems providing nearly 100% solar space heat may cost the same or less per unit heat delivered as a 50 per cent diurnal solar system. Also in contrast to diurnal systems, annual storage systems perform efficiently in meeting the load of a passive or energy-efficient building. A breakeven cost 4¢–10¢/kWh is estimated for optimal 100 per cent solar heating in the U.S.A.     

Performance of experimental solar water heaters in Australia

Seven experimental solar water heaters were installed at C.S.I.R.O. laboratories throughout Australia in order to gain field experience and performance data for various localities. Each heater included an insulated 70-gal hot water storage tank with a built-in electric booster and two solar absorbers of total active area of 45 sq ft.

Each morning approximately 45 gal of water at a temperature of about 135°F were discharged from the tank. Average monthly values for a 12-month period are given for the daily electric power consumption and the solar contribution. Mean yearly contribution of the solar energy under these conditions was from 60 to 80 per cent of the total energy required, depending on the district in which the heaters were located. In order to determine the extent to which the results are typical, a comparison is given, for some of the districts, of the sunshine hours recorded during the test period, with the nominal 30-year average.     

Performance of solar assisted heatpump systems in residential applications

In this experimental study, several solar-assisted heating and cooling configurations have beenconsidered for a basic system comprised of a two-speed heat pump, photovoltaic (PV) arrays, solar thermal collectors, and thermal storage. The objective of the study was to determine the performance of the PV arrays at decreased insolation, the effects of air preheat by solar thermal energy on heat pump operation, and cooling system performance under two different configurations. During the entire operation, the PV arrays converted 4.7 per cent (9.5 MWh) of the incident solar insolation to d.c. power, of which 54.6 per cent was used by the residence. This contributed 23.4 per cent of the total house electrical demand. The remaining 45.4 per cent of the output was fed to the utility, indicating the arrays and the heat pump were not properly sized with each other. Based on results from the winter heating operation, it is shown that for the particular heating system consdered, the best performance is attained when the solar heating is used alone. By using the heat pump as a booster, the remaining available solar energy left in the storage tank can be used with good seasonal performance factor. Summer cooling operation consisted of two sequential cooling configurations. In the first cooling test, the heat pump was operated to either the house or storage when the PV array generation level was greater than the energy demand of the heat pump and associated equipment. When the array output level was less than the cooling system demand, the operating strategy was that of an off-peak cooling operation to chill the water storage. Utilization of chilled water storage was not realized in the first cooling test because of the inherent inefficient design of the Tri-X coil. The capacity at low-speed heat pump operation was too small to effect significant cooling of the water loop; whereas high-speed heat pump operation in attempting to chill water (fan operation absent) caused frosting of the coil. The heat pump was utilized only to maintain chilled water storage in the second cooling test, without heat transfer through the Tri-X coil. Cooling system performance obtained in cooling test 2 using the Ametex exchanger was considerably improved over the test 2 performance with the Tri-X coil.     

Integrated solar pump design incorporating a brushless DC motor for use in a solar heating system

Most solar thermal hot water heating systems utilize a pump for circulation of the working fluid. An elegant approach to powering the pump is via solar energy. A “solar pump” employs a photovoltaic module, electric motor, and pump to collect and convert solar energy to circulate the working fluid. This article presents an experimental investigation of a new integrated solar pump design that employs the stator of a brushless DC motor and a magnetically coupled pump that has no dynamic seal. This design significantly reduces total volume and mass, and eliminates redundant components.The integrated design meets a hydraulic load of 1.7 bar and 1.4 litres per minute, equal to 4.0 watts, at a rotational speed of 500 revolutions per minute. The brushless DC motor and positive displacement pump achieve efficiencies of 62% and 52%, respectively, resulting in an electric to hydraulic efficiency of 32%. Thus, a readily available photovoltaic module rated 15 watts output is suitable to power the system.A variety of design variations were tested to determine the impact of the armature winding, pump size, pulse width modulation frequency, seal can material, etcetera. The physical and magnetic design was found to dominate efficiency. The efficiency characteristics of a photovoltaic module are such that over-sizing is wasteful.The integrated design presents a robust, efficient package for use as a solar pump. Although focus has been placed on application to a solar thermal collector system, variations of the design are suitable for a wide variety of applications such as remote location water pumping.     

A review of collector and energy storage technology for intermediate temperature applications

The technology and thermal performance of intermediate temperature solar collectors is summarized and the status of thermal and thermo-chemical storage methods is reviewed. It is concluded that collector technology is commercially available to achieve delivery temperatures up to 350°F at averaged yearly efficiencies better than 30 per cent in good solar climates and that linear parabolic, single-axis tracking troughs are the best types of collectors currently available for intermediate temperature applications. On the other hand, energy storage options commercially available today are generally limited to sensible heat systems, which are bulky and expensive for long-term storage. More research is necessary to develop new storage concepts, such as intermediate temperature chemical heat pumps based on reversible reactions, suitable for intermediate temperature solar systems with significant storage capability.     

An experimental study of façade-integrated photovoltaic/water-heating system

The worldwide fast development of building-integrated solar technology has prompted the design alternatives of fixing the solar panels on the building façades. How to make full use of an integrative system to achieve the best energy performance can be an important area in the technology promotion. Hybrid solar system applying in buildings has the advantage of increasing the energy output per unit installed collector area. This paper describes an experimental study of a centralized photovoltaic and hot water collector wall system that can serve as a water pre-heating system. Collectors are mounted at vertical facades. Different operating modes were performed with measurements in different seasons. Natural water circulation was found more preferable than forced circulation in this hybrid solar collector system. The thermal efficiency was found 38.9% at zero reduced temperature, and the corresponding electricity conversion efficiency was 8.56%, during the late summer of Hong Kong. With the PVT wall, the space thermal loads can be much reduced both in summer and winter, leading to substantial energy savings. Suggestions were given on how to further improve the system performance.     

Thermal advantages for solar heating systems with a glass cover with antireflection surfaces

Investigations elucidate how a glass cover with antireflection surfaces can improve the efficiency of a solar collector and the thermal performance of solar heating systems. The transmittances for two glass covers for a flat-plate solar collector were measured for different incidence angles. The two glasses are identical, except for the fact that one of them is equipped with antireflection surfaces by the company SunArc A/S. The transmittance was increased by 5–9%-points due to the antireflection surfaces. The increase depends on the incidence angle. The efficiency at incidence angles of 0° and the incidence angle modifier were measured for a flat-plate solar collector with the two cover plates. The collector efficiency was increased by 4–6%-points due to the antireflection surfaces, depending on the incidence angle. The thermal advantage with using a glass cover with antireflection surfaces was determined for different solar heating systems. Three systems were investigated: solar domestic hot water systems, solar heating systems for combined space heating demand and domestic hot water supply, and large solar heating plants. The yearly thermal performance of the systems was calculated by detailed simulation models with collectors with a normal glass cover and with a glass cover with antireflection surfaces. The calculations were carried out for different solar fractions and temperature levels of the solar heating systems. These parameters influence greatly the thermal performance associated with the antireflection surfaces.     

Energy savings for solar heating systems

In this paper the realistic behaviour and efficiency of heating systems were analysed, based on long term monitoring projects. Based on the measurements a boiler model used to calculate the boiler efficiency on a monthly basis was evaluated. Comparisons of measured and calculated fuel consumptions showed a good degree of similarity. With the boiler model, various simulations of solar domestic hot water heating systems were done for different hot water demands and collector sizes. The result shows that the potential of fuel reduction can be much higher than the solar gain of the solar thermal system. For some conditions the fuel reduction can be up to the double of the solar gain due to a strong increase of the system efficiency. As the monitored boilers were not older than 3 years, it can be assumed that the saving potential with older boilers could be even higher than calculated in this paper.     

Comparison between open and closed solar thermal systems

An equation has been derived to determine the difference in the output hot water temperatures of open and closed solar systems. This temperature difference is mainly made up of two factors, the collector parameter and a heat exchanger parameter. Means of minimising this temperature penalty are discussed and analysed. The present results are important in the design of solar thermal systems when heat exchangers are used.     

A technoeconomic simulation model for A hybrid solar water heating system

A simple mathematical model has been developed to evaluate the technoeconomic performance of a hybrid solar water heating system for commercial and industrial applications. Numerical calculations, corresponding to Delhi climatic data and for the prevalent cost of a solar energy system in the Indian market, show that the optimum collector area (meeting nearly 45 percent of the daily hot water demand M litres) is 0–0075 Mm²; either a reduction of about 35 per cent in the present solar collector costs or a more than 20 per cent rise in the cost of presently subsidized diesel oil makes the solar option economic. With the present parameters the cost of useful solar energy is higher than that obtained from the conventional system.     

Numerical simulation and performance assessment of a low capacity solar assisted absorption heat pump coupled with a sub-floor system

A prototype low capacity (10 kW) single stage Li–Br absorption heat pump (AHP), suitable for residential and small building applications has been developed as a collaborative result between various European research institutes and industries. The primary heat source for the AHP is supplied from flat plate solar collectors and the hot/chilled water from the unit is delivered to a floor heating/cooling system. In this paper we present the simulation results and an overview of the performance assessment of the complete system. The calculations were performed for two building types (high and low thermal mass), three climatic conditions, with different types of solar collectors and hot water storage tank sizes and different control systems for the operation of the installation. The simulations were performed using the thermal simulation code TRNSYS. The estimated energy savings against a conventional cooling system using a compression type heat pump was found to be in the range of 20–27%.     

An analytic model for the long-term performance of solar thermal systems with well-mixed storage

A simple analytic method is presented for predicting the long-term performance of solar thermal systems with well-mixed storage and loads that do not vary significantly from day to day. Recognizing that most conventionally designed systems have effective relaxation times that are long relative to the time scale of variations in insolation, but short compared to the time scale for day-to-day variations in insolation, we invoke a constant radiation model and solve the problem within that framework. The results of the analytic method are simple closed-form expressions which enable the user to understand clearly the dependence of system performance on the physically important variables. Good agreement is found between the predictions of the analytic method and the corresponding results of the -f-chart method and computer simulations. The analytic method is furthermore applicable to all collector types and storage fluids and is not restricted to flat plates and hot water storage. The limitations of the analytic method are discussed and found not to introduce a serious restriction for commonly designed conventional systems.     

Experimental investigation of a two-phase closed thermosyphon solar water heater

In this study, experiments were performed to find out how the thermal performance of a two-phase thermosyphon solar collector was affected by using different refrigerants. Three identical small-scale solar water heating systems, using refrigerants R-134a, R407C, and R410A, were constructed and tested side-by-side under various environmental and load conditions. The performance of the system under clear-sky conditions has been investigated with and without water load. Detailed temperature distributions and cumulative collection efficiencies were determined and presented. The experimental results were compared to the results found in the literature and they showed good agreement.     

Thermosiphon solar domestic water heating systems: long-term performance prediction using artificial neural networks

The objective of this work is to use artificial neural networks (ANN) for the long-term performance prediction of thermosiphonic type solar domestic water heating (SDWH) systems. Thirty SDWH systems have been tested and modelled according to the procedures outlined in the standard ISO 9459-2 at three locations in Greece. From these, data from 27 of the systems were used for training and testing the network while data from the remaining three were used for validation. Two ANNs have been trained using the monthly data produced by the modeling program supplied with the standard ISO 9459-2. Different networks were used depending on the nature of the required output, which is different in each case. The first network was trained to estimate the solar energy output of the system for a draw-off quantity equal to the storage tank capacity (at the end of the solar energy collection period) and the second one was trained to estimate the solar energy output of the system and the average quantity of hot water per month at demand temperatures of 35 and 40°C. The collector areas of the considered systems were varying between 1.81 m² and 4.38 m². Open and closed thermosiphonic systems have been considered both with horizontal and vertical storage tanks. In this way the networks were trained to accept and handle a number of unusual cases. The input data in both networks are similar to the ones used in the program supplied with the standard. These were the size and performance characteristics of each system and various climatic data. In the second network the demand temperature was also used as input. For the first network the statistical coefficient of multiple determination (R²-value) obtained for the training data set was equal to 0.9993. For the second network the R²-value for the two output parameters was equal to 0.9848 and 0.9926, respectively. Unknown data were subsequently used to investigate the accuracy of prediction and R²-values equal to 0.9913 for the first network and 0.9733 and 0.9940 for the second were obtained. These results indicate that the proposed method can successfully be used for the prediction of the solar energy output of the system for a draw-off equal to the volume of the storage tank or for the solar energy output of the system and the average quantity of the hot water per month for the two demand water temperatures considered.     

1 MWth INDUSTRIAL SOLAR HOT WATER SYSTEM AND ITS PERFORMANCE

An industrial model solar water heating system is designed and installed, to heat and supply 110 000 liters of hot water at 85°C per day for an egg powder making plant. It consists of a solar collector field (2560 m²), four thermally insulated hot water storage tanks (57.5 m³ capacity each) and the heat distribution system with electrically operated pumps and pneumatic valves for circulation of water. It is equipped with a PC based data acquisition system to monitor the process parameters, a fault detection system to monitor the status of various subsystems and controls for automatic operation of the system. Performance studies conducted on the various subsystems and on the system as a whole revealed that it is delivering the designed thermal output, and the net savings in furnace oil consumption is 78% on an annual basis.     

Thermal performance analysis of a direct-expansion solar-assisted heat pump water heater

A direct-expansion solar-assisted heat pump water heater (DX-SAHPWH) is described, which can supply hot water for domestic use during the whole year. The system mainly employs a bare flat-plate collector/evaporator with a surface area of 4.2 m², an electrical rotary-type hermetic compressor, a hot water tank with the volume of 150 L and a thermostatic expansion valve. R-22 is used as working fluid in the system. A simulation model based on lumped and distributed parameter approach is developed to predict the thermal performance of the system. Given the structure parameters, meteorological parameters, time step and final water temperature, the numerical model can output operational parameters, such as heat capacity, system COP and collector efficiency. Comparisons between the simulation results and the experimental measurements show that the model is able to give satisfactory predictions. The effect of various parameters, including solar radiation, ambient temperature, wind speed and compressor speed, has been analyzed on the thermal performance of the system.     

Solar energy for the Australian food processing industry

Since the cost effectiveness of solar heat generating systems decreases as the temperature increases, the potential for large-scale use of solar energy for industrial processes is very dependent on the operating temperature of the process. Examination of a sample of the Australian food processing industry has shown that 70 per cent of the heat is used at temperatures below 100°C and there is no significant usage above 150°C. A feasibility study of a typical plant in Melbourne shows that it is technically practicable to phase solar energy heating systems into existing processes, and that using known techniques over 30 per cent of the annual heat requirements could be provided by solar collectors. The roof area is adequate for the mounting of collectors but space must be found for insulated hot water tanks to provide thermal storage. Since the gross return on investment in the solar installation is the value of the fuel saved, this directly related to fuel prices. In a situation where energy prices are changing rapidly, recommendations on cost effectiveness have no lasting significance. The paper describes simple methods of making accurate predictions for specific situations so that plant owners and operators can make their own judgements on cost effectiveness.     

Development of a new solar thermal engine system for circulating water for aeration

This paper presents a numerical study about the performance of a Beta Stirling solar thermal engine system. This system is composed of a solar collector box connected to a regenerator hydraulic system and a transmitting power system. The objective of the system is to offer a new alternative to help solving stagnant water pollution in hot countries like Thailand by circulating water in canals, lakes, ponds etc. for aeration using solar energy.The purpose of this study is to determine the power output and actual heat transfer on the performance of the solar thermal engine. The solar thermal engine is analyzed using a mathematical model based on the first law of thermodynamics for processes with finite speed, with particular attention to the energy balance at the receiver. The result of calculations showed that the regenerator volume and phase angle must be chosen carefully to fulfill the requirement that total fluid mass in the system is constant and to obtain maximum power output throughout the day.