Faculty of Engineering

Mechanical Engineering Department

Applied energy

Fall 2019

Solar Water Heating

Date of experiment
17-September 2019

Date of submission
24-September 2019
Table of Contents
Introduction.................................................................................................................................................1
Apparatus and procedure.............................................................................................................................2
A. Apparatus overview:........................................................................................................................2
B-Procedure.............................................................................................................................................3
Theoretical analysis.....................................................................................................................................3
Results.........................................................................................................................................................4
Discussion and conclusion...........................................................................................................................6
References...................................................................................................................................................7
Appendix.....................................................................................................................................................8
A. Derivations......................................................................................................................................8
B. Catalogue.........................................................................................................................................8
C- Data....................................................................................................................................................8
Introduction

The demand for energy sources has been in a constant increase with the advancement in
technology and transportation. Fossil fuels are the most commonly used energy sources, and they
are non-renewable, as well as not environment friendly. Therefore, sustainable energy sources
(solar, hydro, and wind energy) are recently studied to be used as an alternative for fossil fuels.
An example of this is the solar water heater which replaced the electric water heater. Solar water
heaters convert the sun’s radiation energy to thermal energy that will be used to heat water. The
need for such a system resulted in more studies and research in order to improve its efficiency
and benefit from lower cost of operations and safer usage.
The purpose of this experiment will be to study the efficiency of a typical solar water heating
system connected in series.
The unit solar collectors apparatus (HL312) is used to run the experiment and measure different
temperature values at different locations. The recorded values are then used to estimate the
overall efficiency of the system.
Apparatus and procedure
A. Apparatus overview:

Figure1 below is a schematic representation of the HL312 apparatus:

Figure 1 Schematic diagram

The components that make up the system for the experiment consist of:
1 and 2: solar panels
3: pressure relief valve
4: pressure gauge
5: expansion tank
6 and 8: pump
7: heat exchanger
9: storage tank
T1 and T2: thermometers
The system is divided into 2 subsystems: the primary and the secondary circuit. The primary
circuit consists of the solar panels, the heat exchanger, one pump, the expansion tank and the
pressure relief valve. The secondary circuit includes a second pump, the heat exchanger and the
storage tank.
The setup also includes an emergency switch that would shut down the whole system in case of
malfunction, as well as insulation material around the pipes to minimize heat loss to the
surroundings. The flowmeter is also used in the system to set the flow rate of the fluid in the
pipes.
The temperature was recorded at the points marked T1 and T2, which represent the inlet and the
outlet of the heat exchanger in the primary circuit.

B-Procedure

The first step is to switch on the main electric board to start the circulation of water through the
panels. The volumetric flow rate is set using the flowmeter, and will remain constant throughout
the experiment. Starting the cycle from the first solar panel, water exits the first panel and enters
the second panel from the inlet at its bottom. When the water exits the second panel, it continues
its path through the pipes and enters the heat exchanger.
In the secondary circuit, a pump is used to allow the flow of water from the storage tank, where
the cold water is contained, into the heat exchanger. In the heat exchanger, the hot water coming
from the solar panels heats up the water that circulates from the storage tank. After leaving the
heat exchanger, the hot water flows back into the storage tank, while the cold water is pumped
back to the inlet of the first solar panel to reheat.
For safety reasons, since the experiment is a closed system, an expansion tank is added to handle
the increase in pressure from heating water. As the temperature of water increases, so does its
pressure, thus the phenomena is called thermal expansion. For even more safety, a pressure relief
valve is added to ensure safety in case the expansion tank used is undersized.

Theoretical analysis

The primary objective is to determine the efficiency of the system. The general definition of
efficiency implies that:
EnergyOutput
Ƞsystem = (eq.1)
Energy input
The output energy of this experiment is the amount of energy that is transferred to the water in
the form of heat. Thus, the input energy Ethermal can be found by:
Ethermal = ṁ.Cp.ΔT (eq.2)
Where ṁ is the mass flow rate of water in kg/s, Cp is the specific heat of water 4.18 kJ/kg.ºC, and
ΔT is the difference in temperature between the inlet and the outlet in ºC.
As for the energy input, it is the amount of energy extracted from the solar radiations. In order to
obtain a value for the input energy, first the radiation must be measured using the pyranometer.
This device evaluates the solar irradiance in W/m2. The value of the solar energy input is then
computed using:
Esolar = solar irradiance x A
(eq.3)
Where the solar irradiance = 805 W/m2 as measured by the pyranometer, and A is the surface
area of the panels in m2. The equation for the efficiency becomes:
ṁ .C p . ΔT
Ƞsystem = (eq.4)
solar irradiance x A
In order to facilitate the calculation procedure, several assumptions were made:
 Solar irradiance is considered constant throughout the experiment
 Heat loss to the surrounding is neglected
 The change in density of water with the variation of the temperature is neglected

Results
The recorded values of temperature are tabulated below:

Experiment 1: Temperature characteristics of solar system –

Series configuration

Date:17/9/2019

Weather condition: Sunny

Heat medium: Water

To record

T1 T2
Time
ºC ºC
 11:35 50 46

11:40 58 51

11:45 70 62

11:50 80 70

11:55 84 76

12:00 88 80

12:05 92 84

12:10 94 88

12:15 96 90

12:20 98 92

12:25 100 94
Table 1 Inlet temperature T1 and outlet temperature T2

120

100
Temperature in degrees

80

60
T1 vs Time
40 T2 vs Time

20

0
11:31 11:38 11:45 11:52 12:00 12:07 12:14 12:21 12:28
Time

Figure 2 Plot of variation of temperature versus time

As can be implied from the table, the starting temperature of water at the inlet was 50ºC and that
at the outlet was 46ºC. After 50 minutes of running the system, the final temperature at the inlet
is 100ºC and 94ºC at the outlet. Throughout the process, the average difference in temperature
between the inlet and outlet is 7ºC.

Using eq.4, the efficiency of the system is represented below:

Efficienc
ΔT
y
Time
oC  

11:35 4 25.9627

11:40 7 45.4348

11:45 8 51.9255

11:50 10 64.9068

11:55 8 51.9255

12:00 8 51.9255

12:05 8 51.9255

12:10 6 38.9441

12:15 6 38.9441

12:20 6 38.9441

12:25 6 38.9441

45.4348

Discussion and conclusion

The pressure drops can give an indication on which component generate the most losses, looking
back at table 2 answers at inlet and exit are disregarded as their change is not due to losses. The
value after the connection box is also rejected since the change in pressure is affected by the
change in area. For the constant area duct the sections containing both heat exchanger and filter
generated the most losses with almost 0 pressure drop in the section before the connection box,
although those values are subject to experimental errors.
Due to the lack of available data concerning all the present components, a detailed theoretical
analysis cannot be realized to determine the expected efficiency. Instead the results obtained will
be compared to available data online, according to source [2] the peak efficiency range of a
centrifugal fan can range from 55 to 85 % depending on operating conditions (flow rate, head
required etc…) and on the type of fan (forward curved, radial tip, radial blade, backward
inclined) the result obtained (24%) is significantly lower.
The errors for both pressure drop measurement and efficiency rating
 Losses throughout the system.
 The assumptions by using Bernoulli’s equation instead of energy equation.
 Inaccuracies from the measured data by the manometer and amp-meter.
 Neglecting change of density when using continuity equation
 Personnel error in reading the obtained values
It can be also noted that the system was more efficient when the two exits where open, two exits
allowed for a larger flow rate to circulate which directly affected the efficiency according to
eq.3. This indicates that the fan is still below the peak operating range of flow rate.However, it
has the downside of reducing the exit pressure as seen in table.1 from 130 Pa to 85 Pa limiting
the ranges of operation if a desired exit pressure is required.
References

[1] Munson, B. R., Young, D. F., & Okiishi, T. H. (2017). Fundamentals of fluid mechanics.
Hoboken, NJ: J. Wiley & Sons.
Appendix

A. Derivations
A: surface area of the panels = 2x2 = 4 m2
Given the volumetric flow rate, and taking the density of water = 997 kg/m3
ṁ=ρ x V = 997kg/m3 x 0.18 m3/h = 179.46 kg/h = 0.04985 kg/s
0.04985× 4.186 × ΔT
Replacing in (eq.4), η =
805 × 4

B. Catalogue
This sample is provided from company VENTS‘s catalogue for airVents, focusing on here
on casing design and characteristic usage:

C- Data