A novel dual condensers heat pipe photovoltaic/thermal (PV/T) system: Numerical dynamic modelling and effect factors analysis in dual-function operation mode

Abstract

This paper presents a dual condensers heat pipe PV/T system with multiple operating modes, including hot water, space heating, and dual-function. To exploiting the system's potential of energy supply, this paper proposes a dynamic model of the system in dual-function mode on the basis of the verified dynamic heat transfer model and condenser distributed parameter model. Several effect factors on the system performance have been analyzed, including water tank capacity, air-cooled condenser area and the dual condensers installation height difference. The simulated results show that the above parameters have little effect on the system's total thermal efficiency but a significant effect on single condenser heat gain distribution. When the water tank capacity increases from 100 L to 200 L, the thermal efficiency of the water-cooled condenser increases from 10.68 % to 17.82 %, while the air-cooled condenser's decreases from 48.12 % to 40.72 %. As the air-cooled condenser area is changed from model 1 to 4, the total efficiency increase from 58.13 % to 71.41 %. The system's thermal efficiency falls from 58.66 % to 47.50 % and its overall efficiency falls from 71.41 % to 60.40 % when the height difference rises from 0 m to 0.7 m.