Impacts of Domestic Solar Water Heating (DSWH) systems on the cost of a hot shower in low-income dwellings in Brazil

Abstract

This work presents a method to evaluate, from the distribution utility's perspective, the impacts of adopting Domestic Solar Water Heating (DSWH) systems in Brazil, based on demand measurements carried out on two groups of residential households. For the 12 months period evaluated, the case-study shows that using DSWH results in savings of 198 kWh (38%), and active power demand savings at peak times of 860 W (42%) per individual unit. For the distribution utility and per individual unit, using DSWH leads to avoided costs of $ 27.59 (38%), avoided costs due to peak time demand reduction of $ 170.2 (42%), and annual avoided costs of $ 197.79 (41%). This work clearly shows that in the residential section the tariff model and structure is strongly distorted, since it only accounts for the energy consumption per residential unit, and completely disregards the costs associated with power demand availability. Our results show that in Brazil the distribution utility charges only some 15% of the real cost of a hot shower based on electric showerheads.