Abstract
Solar energy has increasingly been employed for domestic and industrial water heating. Both conventional solar water heater (SWH) and photovoltaic thermal (PVT) systems suffer from the drawback of poor energy conversion efficiency. In this article, a unique parallel serpentine-flow thermal collector has been designed and developed that has been employed as an isolated SWH and also integrated with a 32-cell monocrystalline photovoltaic (PV) module. Simulation models of both SWH and PVT systems have been built in TRNSYS to study their thermal performance numerically. Thereafter, outdoor experimental investigations have been conducted under the composite climates of Malaysia. Experimental results show very good agreement with the simulation outcomes with disparity less than 2%. At the optimum flow rate, the maximum thermal efficiencies of SWH and PVT are 82.5% and 74.62%, respectively. Superior water outlet temperature was obtained with SWH. Although SWH exhibits superior thermal performance, PVT’s additional electrical output might make it preferable for several applications.
Highlights
Global energy consumption is exponentially increasing with increased economic activities of the human civilization
The photovoltaic thermal (PVT) system is combined with the PV module and flat plate collector (FPC), wherein the waste heat from the PV module is transferred to the thermal collector that warms up the water flowing through the attached channels
This study investigates and analyzes the collector performance of newly developed SHW and PVT systems with a serpentine-flow thermal collector under typical Malaysian weather conditions
Summary
Global energy consumption is exponentially increasing with increased economic activities of the human civilization. The intensity of CO2 emission of a country is totally dependent on the energy supply system it has adopted, whether coal and oil based or renewable based [2]. Renewable energy sources such as solar, wind, biogas, biomass, hydropower, and geothermal provide low carbon alternatives of energy sources. Renewable energy accounted for only 1.6% of global energy demand in 2012 and is expected to increase to 2.2% in 2035 [3]. Solar energy has benefits like wider access and greater predictability; application of solar energy is expanding day-by-day, especially in water and space heating, desalination, and power generation [4]
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