Abstract
The solar domestic hot water (SDHW) system located on the campus of Bialystok University of Technology is the object of the research described in the current paper. The solar thermal system is composed of 35 flat plate collectors, 21 evacuated tube collectors and eight hot water tanks with the capacity of 1 m 3 of each. Solar facility is equipped with hardware for automatic data collection. Additionally, the weather station located on the roof of the building provides measurements of basic parameters of ambient air and solar radiation. The main objective of Regional Operational Program was the assessment of the effectiveness of this solar energy technology in the climatic conditions of the north-eastern Poland. Energy efficiency of SDHW system was defined in this research as the ratio between the useful heat energy supplied to the domestic hot water system and solar energy incident on the surface of solar panels. Heat loss from water storage tanks, and from the pipe network to the surrounding air, as well as the electrical energy consumed by the pumps have been included in the calculations. The paper presents the detailed results and conclusions obtained from this energy analysis.
Highlights
Economic assessment of energy-conversion systems is quite complex
The additional cost of the monitoring and automatic data collection (ADC) of operating parameters of the solar domestic hot water (SDHW) system tested by the author, was equal about 2/3 of the cost of materials and installation of the solar system
The main goal of the present research has been to determine the seasonal energy efficiency of the solar domestic hot water system located on the campus of Bialystok University of Technology
Summary
Economic assessment of energy-conversion systems is quite complex. The long-term energy efficiency is the key factor of this analysis. The additional cost of the monitoring and automatic data collection (ADC) of operating parameters of the solar domestic hot water (SDHW) system tested by the author, was equal about 2/3 of the cost of materials and installation of the solar system For this reason, experimental studies to evaluate the energy efficiency of medium and large solar installations are not often performed. The results of evaluation of water heating system supported by 640 m2 of solar collectors installed on high-rise housing complex in South Korea have been presented by Yoo in [2] As it turned out, the total energy gains from three years of SDHW operation is lower by a half of the design assumptions. The author hopes that this paper will contribute to increase the knowledge on this important issue and provide the necessary data to design and economic analysis of SDHW systems
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