Solar Energy Vol. 22, pp. 113-118 0038--092XH9/0201-0113/$02.

00/0
© Pergamon Press Ltd., 1979. Printed in Great Britain

DESIGN CONSIDERATIONS FOR RESIDENTIAL

SOLAR HEATING AND COOLING SYSTEMS
UTILIZING EVACUATED TUBE SOLAR COLLECTORS

DAN S. WARD? and JOHN C. WARD:[:

Solar Energy ApplicationsLaboratory, Colorado State University, Fort Collins,CO 80523, U.S.A.

(Received 14 May 1977; revisionaccepted 7 July 1978)

hlmtraet--As solar heating systems become a commercial reality, greater efforts are now being employed to
incorporate solar coolingcomponents in order to obtain a complete solar heating and coolingsystem and thus take
advantage of the cost-effectiveness of year-round use of the solar equipment. Because of the exceptional
performance and high efficiency of evacuated tube solar collectors, these advanced collectors are receiving
considerable attention for use in solar heating and cooling systems. While improved performance is readily
obtained with these sophisticatedsolar collectors,there are also numerous difficultiesand problemsassociated with
their use in a solar system. This paper addresses many of the design considerationswhich must be included in any
realistic solar system design. Most of the considerationspresented here are based on the experience gained in the
design and performance of the solar heating and cooling systems for CSU Solar Houses I-IV.

INTI~DDOCTION under good solar conditions) than does snow or ice on

The addition of a solar cooling capability to a solar space
a n d domestic hot water (DHW) heating system allows
for a substantially improved usage of the solar collector
array and the associated components of the solar sYstem.
Year-round usage gives greater cost-effectiveness of the
solar equipment because of greater cost savings on con-
ventional fuels in return for a relatively small additional
initial capital investment. An integrated solar heating and
cooling system (including DHW heating) is expected to
achieve a much lower cost per unit energy than a solar
space and DHW heating system in most areas of the
continental United States[l].
Ward [2] has shown that solar cooling would typically
provide a nearly constant per cent of the summer cooling
load on a daily basis (with auxiliary providing the
balance each day), whereas heating is usually 100 per
cent on most days (no auxiliary use), and largely auxili-
ary on 20--30 days during the heating season. The use of
evacuated tubular solar collectors permits the collection
of solar energy at lower solar radiation levels (about
0.14 kW/m2 vs 0.25-0.30 kW/m2 for flat-plate collectors--
see Ref.[3]), and thus provides solar energy for heating
and cooling earlier in the morning and later in the even-
ing. This increases the availability of solar radiation
during those periods of load demand.
The particular characteristics of the evacuated tube
solar collectors also play an important part in overall
system design. For example, because of the geometrical
shape of evacuated glass tube solar collectors, snow
removal requires longer melting periods than conven-
tional flat-plate solar collectors because snow slide-off is
generally impeded by the tubular design. Observations at
CSU Solar Houses I and III have shown that snow and
ice remain on the evacuated tubes much longer (6-10 hr
flat-plate collectors. This is due to the much lower heat
losses from the absorber of the evacuated tube collector
and the corresponding lower temperature of the glass
cover.
In addition, the greater strength and durability of a
cylindrical glass tube over a sheet of flat glass means that
wind and hail would be much less of a threat to the
structural integrity of an evacuated glass tube. And,
because of the lower cover temperature of the evacuated
tube, the wind will have less effect on the efficiency of
the collector.
A solar heating and cooling system design must,
therefore, be capable of utilizing the inherent advantages
of evacuated tubes and diminishing the effects of the
inherent disadvantages of these advanced collectors.
EVACUATEDTUBESOLARCOLLECTORS
Evacuated tube solar collectors permit the use of a
vacuum of sufficient magnitude to virtually eliminate
convection and conduction heat transfer losses. In ad-
dition, these collectors generally require a minimum
amount of material per m 2 of collector and thus provide
for the possibility of lower costs (under conditions of
large scale manufacturing processes). Finally, the
vacuum may help to protect a selective surface used on
the absorber (for reduction of long-wave radiation heat
losses) against performance degradation over the life of
the collector.
The performance of these evacuated glass tube solar
collectors can be represented (for steady-state condi-
tions) by the standard equation:
, = F,~(¢a)- F,~UL( ~ ) (t)

tAssistant Professor of Civil Engineeringand Physics. where ~ is the solar collector efficiency (dimensionless),
~;Professor of Civil Engineering. FR(¢a) is solar collector efficiency when (T~- To) = 0,
113
114 D. S, WARDand J. C. WARD

UL is a function of the various heat transfer coefficients into eqn (2) gives
applicable to a particular collector (kJ/[hr][m2][°C]), T~ is
the inlet fluid temperature (°C), To is the outdoor air (2b)
T~(Tio - 273°K - To) = (ra)HR
3
C
temperature (°C), and (HR) is the solar radiation on the
collector (Ll/[hr][m2]).
For comparison purposes, values of FR(¢a) and FRUL The solution of eqn (2b) for Tea is by trial-and-error. For
are given in Table 1 for several different kinds of solar example, for the Owens-Illinois evacuated tube solar
collectors. Equation (1) can also be used to estimate the collector, if one assumes that the value of UL reported in
maximum temperature that may be reached during equil- Table 1 corresponds to 100°C, then from eqn (2a):
ibrium conditions and when there is no flow of coolant
fluid through the collector loop. Under these conditions, C= 6.92 x 10-9 kJ
= 0 and eqn (1) reduces to: (hr)(me)(°K4)

Ti HRO'a) " ,l - l ,,.
~ a
" UL " ture of 555°K has been observed for this collector when
It will be noted that the values of F,O'a) (column 5 of
Table 1) are higher and the values of FaUL (column 6 of
Table 1) are lower for the evacuated glass tube solar
collectors compared to the other more conventional
(concentration = 1) flat-plate solar collectors listed, and
as a result, their equilibrium (no flow) temperatures are
also much higher. However it is important to realize that
heat losses from evacuated glass tube solar collectors are
dominated by thermal radiation. In this case, UL in-
creases with the third power of the absolute temperature
of the absorber, and, because the equilibrium (no flow)
temperature of evacuated glass tube solar collectors are
so high, substantial increases in the value of UL can be
expected. If we assume that:
uL CT~o
= (2a)
where C = a constant, kJ/(hr)(m2)(°K4), and
T,o = T~+ 273°K = absolute inlet fluid temperature, °K.
for this particular solar collector. A stagnation tempera-
(2)
Ta = 21°C and HR = 3088 kJ/(hr)(m2). Substituting these
values of T, and HR into eqn (2b) along with the value
of 0"a)=0.837 (F~ ---0.95), a trial-and-error solution
gives T~o= 536°K, a result that is within 4 per cent of the
observed value. For values of (T~-Ta)IHR>-O.033
(hr)(m2)(°C)lLl, both evacuated glass tube solar collec-
tors have a higher efficiency than the concentrating
(concentration = 10) solar collector that tracks the sun.
One evacuated glass tube solar collector design also
has a significant heat capacity, (cW) [kJ/(°C)(m2)], when
used as a liquid heater. For a weight per unit area (W) of
19.6 kg/m2 when dry and 34.2 kg/m 2 when filled with water
[specific heats (c) of water and glass are, respectively, 4.18
and 0.836 kJ/(hr)(°C)], the value of (cW) for the Owens-
Illinois collector is 77.6 kJ/(°CXm2).
We may note the effects of a large heat capacity by the
following. Let Q, represent the heat delivered by the
collector in kJ/(me)(hr). Then:
Q'-F~(Ta)
- , ~. .u , /T,-To~ . /ATdAt\
) (3)

Substituting eqn (2a) and the above expression for T~ where AT~ is the change in collector inlet fluid tempera-

Table 1. Typical values of FR(¢a)and FRULfor several different kinds of collectors

FRUL
Type of Solar Concen- FR(.~a) kJ
Manufacturer Collector Fl ui d tration
(hr) ( m ~
(1) (2) (~) II (4) (s} (6)
Fresnel lens 10 0.845
(tracking mode) Liquid 6.16
Northrup
Fresnel lens
{non-trackinq mode) Liquid 4 0. 859 9.67
General Electric 2 Lexan cover plates 1 O. 751
(selective surface) Liquid 13.10
'T
CSU Observed ** Liquid 1 0.660 17.30
(Solar House I)
Theoretical Liquid 1 0.730 12.00
Sol aron Observed Air 1 0.637 13.20
(Solar Houses II
and IV) Theoretical Air 1 O. 700 "14.60
Ametek Selective surface, ? Liquid
1 O. 770 12.90
qlass cover plates
Corning
olar House I) Evacuated glass tube!Liquid
1 0.810 5.10
i|l
ens-lllinois
(Solar House I I I ) Evacuated glass tube Liquid 1 0. 791 3.59
**Based on an ex )erimental test module whose sides were not insulated
 Design considerations for residential solar heating
ture (°C) during the time interval At, and At is the time
interval (hr).
For the Owens-Illinois collector, eqn (3) becomes:
( A T.JAt'~
ZH R = 0"791- 3"59 ( ~ ) - 77"6 \ - - H - R ] '
The effect of this large heat capacity can be seen if we
consider the conditions of T~ = 500C; T~ = -10*C; and T~
(T~ at a time At = l hr before)=-10*C. Then eqn (4)
becomes:
Q, = 0.791 H R - 215.4 kJ/(m2)(hr) - 4656 kJ/(m2)(hr).
A study of the second and third terms on the right side
of this equation demonstrates the significance of the
energy required to heat the evacuated tube collector to
operating conditions in relation to the steadystate heat
losses, i.e. heat losses from the collector constitute less
than five per cent of the energy required to "warm up"
the collector. Of equal significance is the fact that most
of the heat stored in the solar collector when it ends its
daily operation will be lost overnight.
There are several variations in the design of evacuated
tube solar collectors; in addition to the Coming and
Owens-Illinois collectors, which are utilized in CSU
Solar Houses I and III, respectively, both General Elec-
tric and Philips (Germany) have done considerable
research into particular designs. While the differences in
design are significant, there are also several noteworthy
similarities. All utilize a liquid (usually water or water-
ethylene glycol) as a coolant liquid, with the inlet and
outlet of the liquid at the same end of the tube (this latter
aspect simplifies the problem of differences in the ther-
mal expansion of the outer glass tube and the absorber
surface). In addition, numerous tubes (6-24 per module)
are piped in series to ensure sufficient flow through each
collector tube (modules are usually in parallel). This
provides for the possibility of substantial pressure drop
through the collector modules and, consequently,
significant pumping power. The evacuated tube solar
collector designs utilized in CSU Solar Houses I and III
have required more pumping power than is acceptable. If
parasitic power requirements are to be reduced to prac-
tical levels, these large pressure drops must be reduced.
In general, arranging the collector modules in parallel
flow patterns (rather than series flow patterns) reduces
the total pressure drop through the collector array.
However, these parallel flow patterns do require careful
design if uniform flow distribution is to be achieved.
Experience indicates that attempting to obtain uniform
flow distribution by trial-and-error adjustments of either
valves or dampers is essentially impossible in solar
collector arrays and, consequently, uniform flow dis-
tribution must be designed into the array from the outset.
And, for evacuated tubes, slight variations in the flow
through a tube in parallel may easily result in boiling (and
thus the loss of the usefulness of the tube) because of
the exceptionally low heat loss coefficient of these
collectors.
Other difficulties associated with the use of water and
115
water-glycol in evacuated tube solar collectors are the
potential for freezing and boiling. The freezing problem
is relatively easy to avoid by using a liquid with a
sufficiently low freezing point. If an ethylene glycol
water mixture is used, sufficient ethylene glycol must be
(4, added to permit flow under all conditions. It is possible
to use lower concentrations of ethylene glycol than that
specified by the manufacturer to prevent damage to the
collector, but flow will not be possible. This, however,
leads to the extremely dangerous situation where the
liquid in the collector reaches the boiling point, but the
lines leading to the collector are still frozen sufficiently to
prevent flow. Experience dictates that solar collector
systems should not be used in a freezing climate with
any liquid whose freezing point is above any air
temperatures that might be encountered.
While the use of ethylene glycol or other non-freezing
liquid may solve the freezing problem, the potential for
power failures over the life of the system virtually assure
numerous opportunities for boil-off of the collector
liquid. In many cases the violent boiling conditions may
damage or destroy the solar collector (thermal shock,
excessive vibration of the absorber within the glass tube,
etc.), but in all cases the liquid must be replaced. If
provisions are not made to recover the boiling liquid, this
recurring cost penalty can be an additional disadvantage
of liquid-heating evacuated tube solar collectors.
Finally, the equilibrium (no flow) temperatures of al-
most any reasonably well designed solar collector will
exceed the boiling point of water and water-ethylene
glycol mixtures. In addition, the equilibrium (no flow)
temperatures of evacuated glass tube solar collectors will
exceed the boiling points of almost any other heat trans-
fer liquid presently being utilized in solar systems, so
provision for boiling must be provided, regardless of the
heat transfer liquid used. One of the potential disad-
vantages of evacuated tube solar collectors is that they'
may not be able to withstand the high equilibrium (no
flow) temperatures they develop either during installation
of later during electrical power failures, etc.
The use of a non-aqueous liquid (to eliminate cor-
rosion problems) permits the use of materials consider-
ably less expensive than copper (even copper is not
immune to corrosion in an aqueous environment). But
because the only practical liquid for heat storage is
water, the use of non-aqueous liquids requires a heat
exchanger between the collector liquid circuit and the
hot water storage tank, a factor that reduces the overall
solar system efficiency. However, many non-aqueous
liquids have boiling points well above those of water or
water-ethylene glycol mixtures. This is an important
consideration in the case of evacuated tube solar collec-
tors because of the possibility of unusually high
temperatures.
An obvious conclusion to the foregoing is the ad-
vantages associated with using air as the collector fluid.
Freezing, boiling, and corrosion difficulties are
eliminated. In addition, maintenance costs of air type
solar systems are of the order of 1 per cent per yr of the
initial installed cost[4]. The annual maintenance costs of
liquid type solar systems are not likely to be any lower
116 D. S. WARDand J. C. WARD

and, in fact, boil-off, periodic replacement of anti-freeze, Tab~ 2.

corrosion, etc. may indicate higher maintenance costs Auto Valves Coil Circ DHW Fan
'V4 V5 V6'V7 Pump Pum~ Pump
than for air systems. Failure to perform any required
I. Solar c o l l e c t o r On
maintenance may result in a solar system performance storing heat
decline substantially greater than 1 per cent per yr. 2. Space heating A A A A -- On * On
from storage
3. Space heating B A, A B -- On Off On
SOLARHEATINGANDCOOIANGSYSTEMDESIGN from a u x i l i a r y
(LIQUID SYSTEM) 4. DHW heating ....... B A -- On On Off
from storage
Figure 1 is a design schematic for an integrated solar 5. Storage to A B A A -- On * --
chiller
heating and cooling system. It incorporates evacuated 16. A u x i l i a r y to B B A B -- On Off --
tubular solar collectors, a thermal storage unit, an auxil- chiller
iary boiler (for providing conventional heat to the heating • May provide DHW heating in addition to space
coils or to the absorption chiller), heating coils, cooling heating and cooling in these modes
subsystem (see below), automatically actuated 3-way
valves, and a DHW preheat system. The various operat-
ing modes of the system are shown in Table 2. and a slightly lower temperature then reaches the DHW
Part of the design rationale of the system shown in double-walled heat exchanger (approximately 80"C). The
Fig. 1 is minimizing the number of pumps, e.g. the use of utilization of several automatically actuated 3-way valves
a single pump to operate the chiller and at the same time can be easily incorporated into solid-state control
provide heat to the DHW system. Note that the higher schemes and constitute less of a capital investment than
temperature water is delivered to the chiller (e.g. 850C) a multitude of pumps.

.. , -..-- ,
froOOOl
½
J~Check
l]'vo,v.
I Thermal
IS~r~'
]
I ~ .... ,,v,

Circ.
Pump

WoV" lj v....
. 11 L__~.

i II I ~,.,,,.r I , I"o".r ,
"- ' I I " ' J

U A
Supply
Air
Fig. 1. Schematicof solar heating and coolingsystem with evacuated tube solar collector.
 Design considerations for residential solar heating
COOLING SUBSYSTEMD~IGN
The design of the cooling subsystem must consider not
only the operating characteristics of the absorption cool-
ing unit, but the other components of the solar system as
well. For example, if the thermal storage unit is located
within the conditioned space of the building, then any
heat losses from the storage will add to the cooling load
and thus degrade the performance of the total system.
Heat losses from a liquid thermal storage unit can be
very substantial and can, in fact, mean the difference
between a successful and an inadequate solar cooling
design. Not only do heat losses from storage add to the
cooling load, but they also detract from the ability of the
solar storage to provide heat at sufficiently high
temperatures to operate the cooling unit. Jacobsen[5]
and San Martin[6], for example, have described un-
expectedly high energy loss rates from the thermal
storage subsystem.
While the additional cooling load caused by heat losses
from storage can be eliminated by relocating the thermal
storage unit exterior to the conditioned space, such
losses still reduce the availability of solar heat to operate
the absorption unit. Another difficulty of an exterior
installation during the winter heating season is the
possibility of freezing, the fact that heat losses to the
ambient will be higher because of higher temperature
differences, and the fact that the heat losses will not
contribute to the building's heating load. Because of
these considerations, the choice of interior or exterior
installations can profoundly affect the overall perfor-
mance of the solar heating and cooling system.
[ _ ~
!coo inq
Coils
,I
Fig. 2. Solar cooling subsystem schematic.
SE Vol.22. No. 2--B
117
The ability of the thermal storage to provide heat to
operate the absorption cooling unit is, as mentioned
previously, heavily dependent on temperature. Ward[7]
has shown, for example, that an inlet temperature of the
generator of the absorption unit of 88°C may provide for
a COP of 0.6 (for cooling water temperatures of 30°C). If
the inlet temperature is reduced to 80°C, the COP may be
reduced to 0.5. On the other hand, if the inlet tempera-
ture is increased to 96°C, the COP will again be reduced
because there is no additional cooling with additional
input heat to the generator. In this latter case, the COP
might be only 0.45. This example emphasizes the im-
portance of careful design for the operation of the ab-
sorption cooling unit. Departures from design conditions
can significantly reduce the performance of the cooling
unit.
Such penalties can also be caused by the inlet
temperatures of the fluid to be cooled, i.e. the building air
(or in the case of an absorption water chiller, the cool
water). For a typical lithium bromide absorption water
chiller, the inlet temperature of the water to be chilled is
14°C and the outlet temperature is 9°C, yielding a COP
of 0.65. However, if the inlet temperature is I I°C, the
COP drops to 0.53.
A cooling subsystem design that incorporates these
considerations is shown in Fig. 2. This design utilizes two
identically-sized water storage tanks (designated as
"warm storage" and "cool storage"), with the total
volume of water in the cooling subsystem equal to the
volume of one tank. Each of the storage tanks acts as a
variable level tank. Operation of the chiller lowers the
---~ CT
" ~ Pump
Circulating
Loop
t
i (Generator)
I Iv2 I
L-~,
A Cool
i-
L___J
i Pump
v3
118 D. S. WARDand J. C. WARD
water level in the warm storage tank. During the delivery
of cool water to the cooling coils (load), the reverse
occurs. When both the chiller is operating and cool water
is delivered to the cooling load, the levels in the storage
units remain constant.
The use of two variable-level cool storage tanks in-
sures the all-important temperature stratification between
the inlet and outlet sides of the water chiller. In addition,
the chiller can he run in a continuous fashion to avoid
cycling of the absorption unit under conditions of inter-
mittent load. Finally, the proper use of automatically
actuated 3-way valves allows the use of a single pump
for the chiller and cooling load loops. The position of
these valves and status of the cooling subsystem pumps
are detailed in Table 3.
Cool storage will undergo some heat gains, and if the
cool storage units are located within the conditioned
space, this will constitute a heat removal method and
contribute toward meeting the cooling load. In this
respect it is similar to the concept of heat losses from a
thermal hot storage unit reducing the winter heating load.
In order to take advantage of these two aspects, a
storage system could be comprised of three water storage
tanks. One tank would be located exterior to the condi-
tioned space and would be twice the volume of the other
two, identically-sized tanks, both of which would be
located within the conditioned space. During the winter
heating season, the exterior tank would be empty and the
two interior tanks would provide a stratified thermal
storage unit for the solar heating system. During the
summer cooling season, the exterior tank would be used
in the cooling subsystem (as described in Fig. 2). Thus
winter heat losses of the interior tanks would aid in
Table 3.
3-way valve
Mode portions Pumps
V1 V2 #3 Cool CT
i l l e r operating, storing A B A On On
ool
i l l e r operating, water to A A A On On
ooling coils
ol storage providing water B A B On Off
meeting the heating load and summer heat gains would
aid in meeting the cooling load. The heat losses of the
exterior tank in summer would be less (due to a lower
temperature difference, i.e. higher ambient temperature)
and would not add to the cooling load.
CONCLUSIONS
Evacuated tube solar collectors have the same in-
herent problems associated with conventional liquid-
heating solar collectors: freezing, boiling, corrosion, etc.
However, for the evacuated tube collectors, the prob-
lems are usually more severe; it is painfully easy to
cause boiling in an evacuated tube collector which util-
izes aqueous collector liquids. It would appear that an
air-heating evacuated tube solar collector design could be
of substantially greater value. With the utilization of
pebble-bed storage at higher temperature levels (e.g.
60°-90°C instead of 20°-60°C), airheating evacuated tube
solar collector systems could perform better than liquid
systems. At these higher temperatures, absorption chiller
units could utilize solar heated air via an air-to-liquid
heat exchanger.
R~C~
1. G. O. G. Ltf and R. A, Tybout, The design and cost of
optimized systems for residential heating and coolingby solar
energy. Proc. ISES Conf., Paris (1973).
2. D. S. Ward, T. Weiss and G. O. G. 1.3f, Preliminary per-
formance of CSU solar house I heating and cooling system.
Solar Energy 18(6),541-548 (1976),
3. D. C. Beeldey and G. R. Mather, Analysis and Experimental
Test of High PerformanceTubular Solar Collectors. Presented
at the 1SES Congress, Los Angeles(1975).
4. J. C, Ward and G. O. G. Ltf, Maintenance costs of solar air
heating systems. Proc. 1977 Annual Meeting, Am. Sec. of
ISES, pp. 10--2to 10--8(1977).
5. A. S. Jacobsen, Solar heating and coolingof mobile home test
results. Proc. ISES Conf., Orlando, Florida (1977).
6. R. L. San Martin, D. LaPante, C. Parkard and H. Shaw,
Twenty months of operating experience with a solar heated
and cooled officebuilding. Proc. 1SES Conf., Orlando, Florida
(1977).
7. D. S. Ward, T. Uesaki and G. O. G. Ltf, Coolingsubsystem
design in CSU solar house III. Solar Energy 20, 119-126
(1978).