Solar Water Heating: A passive water heater (also called natural circulation or thermosyphon) a deasity difference. forced-circulation system. A pump is re- auired: it is usually controlied by a differential thermostat turning: A check valve is needed to prevent reverse circulation and resultant nighttime thermal losses from the collector. FREEZING, BOILING, AND SCALING Solar collectors and associated piping must be designed to avoid damage from freezing and boiling. Freeze, nroiection can be provided by draining the water from the collectors, use of nonfreezing solutions, or warming of the water in the collectors. Ethylene elycol—water and propylene glyool-water solutions are common antifreeze Second. air can be used ‘The third method of freeze protection is to circulate warm water from the tank The fourth method is based on draining water from the collectors when they are not drain-back systems, drain-out The fifth method is to design the collector plate and piping so that it will withstand High collector temperatures may also be a problem, above the boiling point of water under conditions of no fluid circulation, high radiation, and high ambient temperature. Several factors may mitigate this problem. First, antifreeze solutions used in collector loops have elevated boiling points Second, many systems are operated at pressures of several atmospheres, which further raises the boiling point; Third, collector Loss coefficients rise as plate temperatures tise, Scaling problems are not limited to solar water heating systems. deteriorate in performance Nylon 6,6 is an exception increases the thermal resistance to decrease heat transfer but also increases the hydraulic resistance to reduce the fluid circulation.et water to load rm S[_Aainen | Tank Coie water sappy auxiliary Fest ot i To toca Tonk Auaitiory 6 5 Hoot exchonger ee supply ta Figure 12.1.1 Schesmatic of common configurations of water heaters. (a) A natural-circeation system, (b) One-tank foroed-cireulation system. (¢) System with antifreeze loop and interns) heat ‘exchanger (d) Sysiem with antifeze Toop and external heat exchanger. Ausiliary is shown added inthe tank, in @ line heater, oF ina second tank: any of these auxiliary methods can be used with any of the collector-tenk arangementsAUXILIARY ENERGY ‘The deste of reliability ; 7 by a combination of properly sized collector and storage units and an auxiliary in most climates auxiliary energy is needed to provide high reliability and avoid. gross ‘overdesign of the solar system. 1 [Fp perene 1 1 CT t i 1 _ From mains Figure 12.3.1 Schematic of alternative location for auxiliary energy supply to a one-tank forced circulation solar water heater: A, in tank; B, in line to load; C, in a bypass around tank, ‘A is controlled by a thermostat B be supplied to the water leaving the tank, thus “topping off” the solar energy with auxiliary energy. € directly to the incoming supply water However, when the minimum hot- water temperature was raised to set points usually used in domestic hot-water sysiems, method B showed significant advantages over method A, which in tum was better than method C. ‘The major reasons for the differences ia performance on changing the method of adding auxiliary energy concer the temperature at which the collector operates. Adding FORCED-CIRCULATION SYSTEMS Most domestic solar water heaters in the United States ate forced-circulation three collector modules of dimensions about 1X 2 m are used. flow rates were commorly around 0.015 kg/m* s, The collectors are tvnically one-cover units with black chrome selective surfaces,