Thermal performance analysis of Solar Water Heaters.

Abstract

Solar energy is one of the most extensively used forms of energy. It is utilized, low cost,sustainable,emission free renewable energy source,and it reduces power costs from coal,electricity, and other sources.Solar energy is utilized for several applications,such as water heating in homes and industrial applications using solar collectors.This project report presents the thermal performance analysis of the solar water heaters using flat plate solar collectors using the data recorded for a period of six months from Wind Hook Namibia.The performance parameters such as collector efficiency, solar fraction and overall system efficiency for six months were investigated. Results show that on average,solar fraction can range from 0.5 to 0.8 indicating that under certain conditions such as Solar radiation, system design and sizing and auxiliary Heating among others the system is able to provide an average value of 0.7 meaning that 70% of the total energy required for water heating is provided by the solar water heating system.In other words, the solar system is able to meet 70% of the hot water demand without relying on auxiliary heating sources.