Multi-Objective Optimization Design for Indirect Forced-Circulation Solar Water Heating System Using NSGA-II

Myeong Jin Ko
Additional contact information
Myeong Jin Ko: Urban Development Institute, Incheon National University, Incheon 406-772, Korea

Energies, 2015, vol. 8, issue 11, 1-25

Abstract: In this study, the multi-objective optimization of an indirect forced-circulation solar water heating (SWH) system was performed to obtain the optimal configuration that minimized the life cycle cost (LCC) and maximized the life cycle net energy saving (LCES). An elitist non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm (NSGA-II) was employed to obtain the Pareto optimal solutions of the multi-objective optimization. To incorporate the characteristics of practical SWH systems, operation-related decision variables as well as capacity-related decision variables were included. The proposed method was used to conduct a case study wherein the optimal configuration of the SWH system of an office building was determined. The case study results showed that the energy cost decreases linearly and the equipment cost increases more significantly as the LCES increases. However, the results also showed that it is difficult to identify the best solution among the Pareto optimal solutions using only the correlation between the corresponding objective function values. Furthermore, regression analysis showed that the energy and economic performances of the Pareto optimal solutions are significantly influenced by the ratio of the storage tank volume to the collector area (RVA). Therefore, it is necessary to simultaneously consider the trade-off and the effect of the RVA on the Pareto optimal solutions while selecting the best solution from among the optimal solutions.

Keywords: solar water heating system; multi-objective optimization; life cycle cost; life cycle net energy saving; non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm; Pareto optimal solution (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/8/11/12360/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/8/11/12360/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jeners:v:8:y:2015:i:11:p:12360-13161:d:59079

Access Statistics for this article

Energies is currently edited by Ms. Agatha Cao

More articles in Energies from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().