Abstract
This study presents a proposed configuration of an innovative residential Solar Water Heater (SWH) system that will meet the hot water requirement and achieve a lower payback period in Saudi Arabia. Different SWH configurations were evaluated in terms of collector type, circulation method, heat exchanging mechanism and hot water storage. Also; the effect of SWH variable parameters on its thermal performance were determined. The variable parameters included collector tilt and orientation angles, albedo ratio, circulation flow rate, tank size, heat exchanger effectiveness and customer hot water supply temperature. The study covered five different cities, which represent different climate conditions. Proper optimization of SWH system configuration resulted in 30% reduction in the system payback period, which is about 4.3 years. Better economic figures can be expected for the installation of SWH systems in commercial and industrial sectors. Keywords: Solar water heating, System Advisor Model, SAM, Saudi Arab DOI: 10.7176/JETP/11-4-02 Publication date: July 31 st 2021
Highlights
Increasing environmental concerns about global warming along with the fear of accelerated depletion of the fossil fuel resources have expedited the applications of renewable energy all over the world
The effect of six key thermal and economical parameters of Solar Water Heater (SWH) systems on the overall system performance has been studied at five different climatic locations in Saudi Arabia
This energy will be used for economic analysis. x Delivered energy: Thermal energy delivered by the SWH system to the solar insulated storage tank. x Auxiliary heat: Electric power consumed by the auxiliary heater to increase the water temperature from the solar storage tank to the required pre-set temperature. x Auxiliary heat only: Electric power that would be required when using electrical water heating system only and no solar energy is used. x Solar fraction (%): The ratio of benefited solar energy to the total energy delivered to the water storage tank to achieve the set temperature. x Payback period (Years): is the duration in years that it takes for annual savings to equal the annual costs
Summary
Increasing environmental concerns about global warming along with the fear of accelerated depletion of the fossil fuel resources have expedited the applications of renewable energy all over the world. X Economic studies to benchmark the selected design of SWH against existing electrical water heater systems taking into consideration the recent implemented energy price reform in Saudi Arabia. In Saudi Arabia there are some additional challenges that may face SWH, which may not exist in other countries These include: x Hard water exceeding 400 ppm x Hail size more than 25 mm in diameter is common x Dust accumulation on the collectors x Large family size comparing to other countries x Different plumbing design x Low energy prices. The objective is to come up with the optimum arrangement that has the highest weight in addressing the described ten design requirements To perform this objective, a weighted score technique was used for selecting the type of collector, circulation, heat exchanging method and hot water storage arrangement. The software will be able to provide main economic figures, such payback period, NPV. and IRR if www.iiste.org required
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