Comparison of natural convection heat exchangers for solar water heating systems
Thermosyphon heat exchangers are used in indirect solar water heating systems to avoid using a pump to circulate water from the storage tank to the heat exchanger. In this study, the authors consider the effect of heat exchanger design on system performance. They also compare performance of a system with thermosyphon flow to the same system with a 40W pump in the water loop. In the first part of the study, the authors consider the impact of heat exchanger design on the thermal performance of both one- and two-collector solar water heaters. The comparison is based on Solar Rating and Certification Corporation (SRCC) OG300 simulations. The thermosyphon heat exchangers considered are (1) a one-pass, double wall, 0.22 m{sup 2}, four tube-in-shell heat exchanger manufactured by AAA Service and Supply, Inc., (the Quad-Rod); (2) a two-pass, double wall, 0.2 m{sup 2}, tube-in-shell made by Heliodyne, Inc., but not intended for commercial development; (3) a one-pass, single wall, 0.28 m{sup 2}, 31 tube-in-shell heat exchanger from Young Radiator Company, and (4) a one-pass single-wall, 0.61 m{sup 2}, four coil-in-shell heat exchanger made by ThermoDynamics Ltd. The authors compare performance of the systems with thermosyphon heat exchangers to a system with a 40 W pump used with the Quad-Rod heat exchanger. In the second part of the study, the effects of reducing frictional losses through the heat exchanger and/or the pipes connecting the heat exchanger to the storage tank, and increasing heat transfer area are evaluated in terms of OG300 ratings.
Retrofitting Domestic Hot Water Heaters for Solar Water Heating Systems in Single-Family Houses in a Cold Climate: A Theoretical Analysis
One of the biggest obstacles to economic profitability of solar water heating systems is the investment cost. Retrofitting existing domestic hot water heaters when a new solar hot water system is installed can reduce both the installation and material costs. In this study, retrofitting existing water heaters for solar water heating systems in Swedish single-family houses was theoretically investigated using the TRNSYS software. Four simulation models using forced circulation flow with different system configurations and control strategies were simulated and analysed in the study. A comparison with a standard solar thermal system was also presented based on the annual solar fraction. The simulation results indicate that the retrofitting configuration achieving the highest annual performance consists of a system where the existing tank is used as storage for the solar heat and a smaller tank with a heater is added in series to make sure that the required outlet temperature can be met. An external heat exchanger is used between the collector circuit and the existing tank. For this retrofitted system an annual solar fraction of 50.5% was achieved. A conventional solar thermal system using a standard solar tank achieves a comparable performance for the same total storage volume, collector area and reference conditions.
Application design of a sun-tracking system
As a very good renewable energy, solar energy gets a lot of countries' concerns. How to improve the efficiency of solar panel is now a hot topic and sun tracking is one of the solutions. In this paper, a servo tracking system using dSPACE DS1104 R&D controller board is designed to improve solar collection efficiency. It combines electro-optical tracking and sun trajectory tracking, and can keep solar panels perpendicular to the sun during daylight hours. In order to reduce the amount of computation, a T-S fuzzy system based sun trajectory tracking is proposed. Because of the seamless connection between dSPACE and MATLAB/Simulink, the development cycle time is short. Experimental results show that the system can track the sun precisely and has higher efficiency.