Domestic hot water consumption vs. solar thermal energy storage: The optimum size of the storage tank

M.C. Rodríguez-Hidalgo, P.A. Rodríguez-Aumente, A. Lecuona, M. Legrand and R. Ventas

Applied Energy, 2012, vol. 97, issue C, 897-906

Abstract: Many efforts have been made in order to adequate the production of a solar thermal collector field to the consumption of domestic hot water of the inhabitants of a building. In that sense, much has been achieved in different domains: research agencies, government policies and manufacturers. However, most of the design rules of the solar plants are based on steady state models, whereas solar irradiance, consumption and thermal accumulation are inherently transient processes. As a result of this lack of physical accuracy, thermal storage tanks are sometimes left to be as large as the designer decides without any aforementioned precise recommendation. This can be a problem if solar thermal systems are meant to be implemented in nowadays buildings, where there is a shortage of space. In addition to that, an excessive storage volume could not result more efficient in many residential applications, but costly, extreme in space consumption and in some cases too heavy.

Keywords: Renewable energy; Solar thermal energy; Water storage tank; Transient simulation; Heat storage; Domestic hot water (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2012
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (35)

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DOI: 10.1016/j.apenergy.2011.12.088

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