Comparison of Solar Photovoltaic and Solar Thermal Collector for Residential Water Heating and Space Heating System

Abstract

Almost all single-family detached houses in Canada consume enormous electrical energy for space heating and domestic hot water (DHW) purposes. There are many possibilities to design an energy-efficient house. A solar water heating system can be used for domestic water and space heating. Water temperature can be kept constant always by connecting a heat pump or oil burner to the main tank because solar energy is intermittent. The sizing of solar photovoltaic and collector, tank, heat pump are essential to design an effective system based on the system energy consumption. The existing house is just a conventional house where space and water heating are provided by the grid electricity only. In this research, two possible ways of thermal energy storage systems have been designed for a residential single-family house with solar collector and solar photovoltaic. It is proved that the proposed PV based energy storage system is highly suitable considering lower cost, high output power, flexibility, and easy installation.