Success Story of Solar Thermal Water Heaters

Abstract

One of the most widely used systems for domestic water heating is the solar thermosyphon unit. Such a system consists of two flat-plate collector panels 1.35m2 in aperture area each and a 150 lt hot water cylinder. No pump is required for this system as the hot water is transferred to storage because of the thermosyphon effect. The system is modeled and simulated with TRNSYS program for Nicosia and the results show that 6,394 MJ of energy can be provided per year and the solar contribution is 0.8. The life cycle savings is C£687 and C£485 for electricity and diesel backup respectively. The pollution created for the production of the system is estimated by calculating the embodied energy invested in the manufacture, assembly and installation of the collectors and other parts of the system. For the present system the embodied energy is found to be 7,260 MJ. By considering the useful energy collected by the system each year, the embodied energy is recouped in about 1.14 years.