Analysis of solar collectors’ use in a single family house in Poland and Spain-a case study

Abstract

Renewable energy sources, especially solar radiation used in solar systems, have become popular lately although it is worthy to note that types of installations used and shares of renewable energy sources differ between European countries significantly. Main rules of selection of solar collectors, their advantages and the most important parameters determining the solar collector efficiency (as the structure, the flow rate of the heating medium, the effect of connection into batteries) were described in [1]. Methods that can be used during analysis of solar energy available as well as parameters influencing effective radiation, for instance shading were presented in [2-5]. In this paper we analysed a single family house with horizontal roof located in two countries: Poland and Spain. In both locations during analysis we took into account an influence of climatic conditions, national rules, companies’ recommendations, cost of installation of the system, price of optional energy generation etc. We estimated Simple Payback Time (SPBT) for two types of collectors: flat-plate and vacuum pipe ones and noted specific national and European Union financial programs dedicated new installations. Results help to understand differences in development of solar energy market in chosen countries.