Long-term performance of a solar water heating system with a novel variable-volume tank

Jiarong Li, Xiangdong Li, Yong Wang and Jiyuan Tu

Renewable Energy, 2021, vol. 164, issue C, 230-241

Abstract: A novel variable-volume tank is lately designed to cater for the varying needs of tank volume. Based on the validated models of collector and the novel tank, a mathematical model for the solar heating system with the novel tank is proposed in this paper. The system is designed for space heating and consists of solar collector, variable-volume water tank and auxiliary heat source. A case of office building using the solar heating system for space heating is studied. The thermal behaviour of the system during a 4-month heating season is simulated and investigated. The studied case shows that the novel tank system has clear advantage in providing 11.6% more useful heat and reducing 19% system heat loss compared to a conventional system. A parametric study is also conducted to analyse the impacts of tank insulation, tank volume and collector size on the long-term system performance. The results show that the long-term performance of the novel tank system is more resilient to a degraded tank insulation or an oversized tank volume, which contributes to a robust heating system to cope with extreme operating conditions.

Keywords: Variable-volume tank; Long-term performance; Solar space heating; Mathematical model (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:renene:v:164:y:2021:i:c:p:230-241

DOI: 10.1016/j.renene.2020.08.143

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