Solar Water Heating

11/30/2020 Renewable Technologies

Assignment No. 3
Introduction

Solar water heating is one of the most known solar thermal application. Solar water heating
technology has proven to be cost efficient for several domestic and industrial applications in
terms of installation expenditures and energy cost over the total life of the system, but still the
usage of solar water heating system (SWHS) is not commonly employed throughout the
globe. SWHS consist of different parts and performance of each part has been improved in
latest years which is enhancing thermal efficiency of complete system. We will not discuss
solar water heaters parts and its working principle. The investigators throughout the globe
focusing on technical advancement as well as economic feasibility of SWHS. This report
discuss the status of use of solar water heating in different regions of world and also discuss
technical development occurring in this technology.

Current Status

According to Renewable 2016 Global Status report [1], Solar Water Heaters are used in some
regions of the world more frequently than others. Applications of Solar Water Heating in
different regions is shown Figure 1. Globally approximately half of the World's installed
capacity is for larger domestic SWH shown by red bars and the other half for smaller SWH
shown by orange bars, with swimming pool heating (purple bars) and sophisticated SWH-
combi systems (blue bars) playing only a minor role. Moreover, in Latin America, smaller
domestic SWH have the largest share, followed by swimming pool heating. Institutional and
commercial use also plays a role. In Sub-Saharan Africa, the majority (two thirds) of SWH
are smaller systems, with swimming pool heating contributing to approximately 30% of
newly installed capacity. Swimming pool heating does not play a role in the Middle East,
North Africa or Asia. In Asia, Middle East and North Africa, approximately 60% of newly
installed capacity are larger SWH for institutions, while in other Asian countries (except
China), approximately 70% of newly installed capacities can be attributed to smaller SWH.
 Figure 1: SWH applications by Region [1]

Similarly according to Renewable 2018 Global Status report [2], Solar Water Systems with
glazed and unglazed collectors provided approximately 388 TWh (1,397 PJ) of heat annually
by the end of 2017, equivalent to the energy content of 228 million barrels of oil. Globally,
35 GW of capacity of glazed (flat plate and vacuum tube technology) and unglazed collectors
was newly commissioned in 2017, bringing the total global capacity to an estimated 472 GW
by year’s end as shown in Figure 2. The top 20 countries for solar thermal installations with
glazed and unglazed collectors accounted for an estimated 93% of the global market in 2017
as shown in Figure 3. China was the world´s largest solar thermal market by far as shown in
Figure 3.
 Figure 2: Solar Water Heating Collectors Global Capacity (2007-17) [2]

Figure 3: Top 20 Countries for Solar Water Heating Collection Additions in 2017 [2]

A study conducted by Gautam et al., [3] also discussed the global market scenario of solar
water heating systems. The Table 1 given below describes the uses of solar thermal collector
in different continents and their major countries.
 Table 1 : Use of Solar Thermal Collector in different Continents [3]

Development Trends

Gautam et al., [3] observed after reviewing extensive literature that there is an appreciable
development in the technical part of SWHS but the SWHSs have a high initial cost as
compared to the conventional water heating systems, which is a major barrier in this system
becoming a common asset, for a common man. So, they’re a necessity to focus on the
economic part of SWHS. In terms of construction as well as working, SWHSs are of various
types which depend on the requirement and the system parameters that affect its output. It has
been seen that the mostly studies are done on the system having forced circulation, there is a
need to improve the SWHSs having thermosyphon circulation. Heat pump based solar
collectors are widely used in solar adverse areas for utilizing the solar energy. This design of
SWHS is depends on many factors including the nature of refrigerant which needs to be
further research.

Technical advancements in SWHS suggested by different researchers are also discussed by

Gautam. It was found that a SWHS the V-trough collector integrated with solar absorber will
improve the performance of SWHS. Similarly thermal performance of SWHS will increase
by optimizing the collector area and storage tank volume which also minimize the cost of this
system. The charge efficiency was found to be 82% by the use of two phases thermosyphon
SWHS. A study also found that left-right tube insert regularly spaced with rod and spacer, is
useful in enhancing the internal convective heat transfer in a thermosiphon SWHS as its
influence the heat transfer and friction fraction characteristics. The optical and thermal
performances will improve by using a compound parabolic reflector. Moreover, the genetic
algorithm and artificial neural networks are also used by different researchers to find the
optimal sizing of the solar thermal system by considering the different constraints.

According to Vengadesan and Senthi [4], among different solar thermal water heating
collectors, flat plate solar water heater (FPSWH) is widespread due to simple construction,
smooth operation, low-maintenance and low-cost but the thermal efficiency of the FPSWH
system is a major concern to design an economically viable SWH system. Optimization of
collector design is one of the simplest and effective ways to attain maximum collector
efficiency by overcoming the heat loss and pressure drop. Likewise, the use of nanoparticle in
heat transfer fluids influences more heat transfer rate due to increased thermal conductivity
and random movements of nano particle in the fluid. The effect of combined nano fluid and
turbulent creator has a better improvement on the FPSWH. From literature research author
summarizes different methods for thermal performance enhancement of flat plate solar water
heater which is illustrated in Fig. 1
 Figure 4: Different methods of improving the performance of FPSC [4]

The author further emphasise that even though the shape of the collector, riser tube, and
absorber plate has an essential effect on collector’s performance, further studies may be
conducted to investigate novel collector materials to bring down the costs. The higher
viscosity of hybrid nano fluid is a significant problem to be addressed to improve the thermal
efficiency and the cost-effectiveness of application of nano fluids is not feasible for a large-
scale commercial application at present which needs further research.

Wen Li et al., [5] devised control strategies which can improve the energy efficiency of an
existing solar water heating system and thereby reduce the operational cost of the SWH
without having any impact on the users’ experience such as hot water demand and
temperature by implementing IoT-based monitoring systems. Data is collected by IoT, such
as water flow, heat pump and water pump operational schedule, availability of solar, and
electricity consumption, a comprehensive energy audit is performed by author to analyze the
efficiency of sub-systems and the performance of overall system as well. Based on the
insights obtained from data analysis, corresponding control strategies for various sub-systems
are developed to improve the efficiency of the overall system and reduce the operational cost
of the SWH. This is novel approach used by any researcher which will improve efficiency of
existing solar water heating systems.
Another researcher [6] modelled a hybrid solar-assisted water heating system that uses CO2
as the working fluid which is becoming increasingly important as a mediating fluid and
dynamically simulated whole system in TRNSYS® software under sub-zero weather
conditions. The SWH system using CO2 exhibits considerable efficiency in winter on the
average because the system operates at critical and supercritical conditions in winter, in
which a small glide in temperature causes a strong change in density and results in improved
heat transfer. Thus, the use of CO2 as a refrigerant will improve the thermal efficiency of
solar water heating system.

Reference:

[1] J. Sawin, F. Sverrisson, K. Seyboth, and R. Adib, “Renewables 2016 Global Status
Report. Key findings. A Record Breaking Year for Renewable Energy: New
Installations, Policy Targets, Investment and Jobs,” 2016.

[2] E. Aberg et al., “RENEWABLES 2018 GLOBAL STATUS REPORT,” 2018.

[3] A. Gautam, S. Chamoli, A. Kumar, and S. Singh, “A review on technical

improvements, economic feasibility and world scenario of solar water heating system,”
Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, vol. 68. Elsevier Ltd, pp. 541–562, 01-
Feb-2017.

[4] E. Vengadesan and R. Senthil, “A review on recent development of thermal

performance enhancement methods of flat plate solar water heater,” Solar Energy, vol.
206. Elsevier Ltd, pp. 935–961, 01-Aug-2020.

[5] W. T. Li, W. Tushar, C. Yuen, B. K. K. Ng, S. Tai, and K. T. Chew, “Energy

efficiency improvement of solar water heating systems – An IoT based commissioning
methodology,” Energy Build., vol. 224, p. 110231, Oct. 2020.

[6] N. Abas, A. R. Kalair, M. Seyedmahmoudian, M. Naqvi, P. E. Campana, and N. Khan,

“Dynamic simulation of solar water heating system using supercritical CO2 as
mediating fluid under sub-zero temperature conditions,” Appl. Therm. Eng., vol. 161,
p. 114152, Oct. 2019.