Exergetic Studies on Domestic and Industrial Solar Water Heaters (original) (raw)

Exergy analysis of solar energy applications

Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 2012

Solar energy is a clean, abundant and easily available renewable energy. Usage of solar energy in different kinds of systems provides scope for several studies on exergy analysis. In the present work, a comprehensive literature review has been carried out on exergy analysis of various solar energy systems. The systems considered under study are solar photovoltaic, solar heating devices, solar water desalination system, solar air conditioning and refrigerators, solar drying process and solar power generation. The summary of exergy analysis and exergetic efficiencies is presented along with the exergy destruction sources.

Exergetic analysis of a solar thermal power system

This communication presents a second law analysis based on an exergy concept for a solar thermal power system. Basic energy and exergy analysis for the system components (viz. parabolic trough collector/receiver and Rankine heat engine, etc.) are carried out for evaluating the respective losses as well as exergetic eciency for typical solar thermal power systems under given operating conditions. It is found that the main energy loss takes place at the condenser of the heat engine part, whereas the exergy analysis shows that the collector±receiver assembly is the part where the losses are maximum. The analysis and results can be used for evaluating the component irreversibilities which can also explain the deviation between the actual eciency and ideal eciency of a solar thermal power system. #

Exergy analysis of solar thermal energy utilization for buildings: comparison between Multiple source Multiple use Heat Pump (MMHP) and Solar Water Heater (SWH) systems for winter season

IOP Conference Series: Materials Science and Engineering, 2019

In recent years, there are various utilization methods of solar thermal energy and it is hard to find which system is the best to utilize energy as work from the view point of energy concept alone. Therefore, we conducted exergy analysis of two different solar energy utilization methods: one is a multiple source & multiple use heat pump we have developed; and the other is a conventional solar water heater. In order to clarify the performance gap depending on the solar radiation between the multiple source & multiple use heat pump and the solar water heater, exergy analysis was carried out on a clear-sky day and a daily average under the condition of equal exergy output. The results show that the performance of the solar water heater highly depends on the weather conditions, on the other hand, the multiple source & multiple use heat pump shows high performance regardless of the weather conditions.

Exergy Analysis of Serpentine Thermosyphon Solar Water Heater

The performance of a solar hot water system is assessed for heat pump and domestic heating applications. Thermodynamic analysis on a serpentine-type thermosyphon flat-plate solar heater is conducted using the Second Law of thermodynamics. Exergetic optimization is first performed to determine the parameters for the maximum exergy efficiency using MATLAB optimization toolbox. Geometric parameters (collector surface area, dimensions, and pipe diameter), optical parameters (transmittance absorptance product), ambient temperature, solar irradiation and operating parameters (mass flow rate, fluid temperature, and overall heat transfer (loss) coefficient) are accounted for in the optimization scheme. The exergy efficiency at optimum condition is found to be 3.72%. The results are validated using experimental data and found to be in good agreement. The analysis is further extended to the influence of various operating parameters on the exergetic efficiency. It is observed that optical and thermal exergy losses contribute almost 20%, whereas approximately 77% exergy destruction is contributed by the thermal energy conversion. Exergy destruction due to pressure drop is found negligible. The result of this analysis can be used for designing and optimization of domestic heat pump system and hot water application.

Exergy analysis and life cycle assessment of solar heating and cooling systems in the building environment

Journal of Cleaner Production , 2012

The serious environmental degradation of our planet in the past century and the limitation of supplies of conventional fuels have led humanity to search for new energy forms. The housing sector has a big environmental impact and it makes a good candidate for changes to be implemented in order to make steps towards a sustainable society. This study deals with the exergy analysis and the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of solar systems for space heating, cooling and hot domestic water production. These systems will be applied to a residence in the wide Thessaloniki area, in Northern Greece. The analysis is based on the given energy needs of an average house. Furthermore, a photovoltaic system (PV) will be used for electricity production. Besides Solar energy, the existing geothermal field will be utilized via heat pumps. The system is designed to exploit solar and geothermal energy and an exergy analysis of the different elements of the system is performed so that improvements can be achieved in its efficiency and its cost be reduced. It has been shown that the exergy efficiency of the solar systems and the geothermal system are relatively low. Since almost all of the environmental impacts of the renewable energies are connected to the manufacturing of the devises for their utilization, the environmental impacts will be analyzed only at the manufacturing stage. The use of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) will be used. It has been shown that the use of solar cooling has the highest environmental impact. This analysis applies for all regions since the energy needs could be adjusted and the solar radiation of that region taken into consideration.

A review on exergy analysis of solar electricity production

Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 2017

The increasing installed area of solar technologies around the world gives us an idea about the unlimited potential available in solar energy. Solar light and thermal energy can provide sufficient electricity needed in daily life. In additionally, photovoltaics, photovoltaic/thermal, concentration photovoltaic, concentration solar power and solar thermoelectric have been developing for energy conversion. The main aim of the present study is to make comprehensively review on exergy analysis and performance assessment of a wide range of solar electricity production. Exergy can be used to assess and improve energy systems, and can help better understand the benefits of utilizing green energy by providing more useful and meaningful information than energy provides. After that the studied systems are exergetically analyzed and evaluated solar electricity includes photovoltaics (PVs) and hybrid (PV/T water or PV/T air) solar collectors. The advantages and disadvantages of these systems will be presented on exergy concept. The CSP systems, the systems with nanofluid and PCM were exhibited.

Energy and exergy analyses on solar heating cooling and power generation systems (solar combined cooling, heat and power (CCHP

Renewable energy, Exergoeconomic, Cogeneration system, Solar power Increasing environmental pollutions and the expense of fossil fuels necessitates employment of efficient instruments and easily producible clean sources as abasic solution to this problem. Cogeneration systems are used for their high performance with a performance of approximately eighty-five percent Cogeneration production system with renewable energy source is the best solution to fuel suitable and high cost Amon all renewable energy sources, use of solar power is of interest. Solar power is the best choice because it's free and clean. This project illustrates the analyzed exergy and eregyeconomic simulations of solar hybrid cycle. Thermo economic and exergoeconomic analysis where used in this research, with exergoeconomic we can analyze cycle cost, payback period and exergy performance. Case study for this project was a building with 480 m² or square meters area in Zahedan, Iran. In this study, a small scale hybrid solar heating, cooling and power generation set-up including solar collector, screw expender auxiliary heater, adsorption chiller, etc., was proposed and extensively investigated.

Analysis of photovoltaic (PV) and photovoltaic/thermal (PV/T) systems using the exergy method

Energy and Buildings, 2013

In this paper, a simple pass photovoltaic-thermal air heater system with slats has been considered to study its electrical and exergy performance by theoretical and numerical analysis. The collector has been modeled in such a way that the absorber plate is totally covered by photovoltaic modules. The climatic data (solar irradiation, ambient temperature) of the Far Nord region of Cameroon have been used. Thin metallic strips called slats have been attached longitudinally at the bottom side of the absorber plate of the system. The first and second laws of thermodynamics have been applied to write the equations describing the functioning of the system. These equations have been solved by numerical computation using the gradient conjugate method. The influences of some operating parameters on the electrical and overall exergy efficiencies were investigated. It was found that (i) it is of great importance to use slats as an integral part of the absorber surface in order to achieve better efficiencies of single pass photovoltaic-thermal systems and (ii) the instantaneous overall electrical and overall exergy efficiencies of a simple pass hybrid (PV/T) solar air heater varies between 9-12% and 11,5-18,5% respectively.

Experimental investigation of exergy efficiency of a solar photovoltaic thermal (PVT) water collector based on exergy losses

Solar Energy, 2015

In this paper, the exergy efficiency of a solar photovoltaic thermal (PVT) water collector is investigated experimentally and numerically. An experimental setup of PVT water collector is constructed and its operating parameters are measured. The measured parameters include solar radiation intensity, wind speed, ambient temperature, solar cells temperature, fluid inlet and outlet temperature, open circuit voltage, short circuit current, maximum power point voltage and maximum power point current, respectively. The numerical simulation of PVT water collector is carried out with the use of one-dimensional steady thermal model and four-parameter currentvoltage model. The various exergy components in PVT system is introduced and a modified equation for exergy efficiency in terms of exergy losses is obtained. Numerical simulation results are in good agreement with the experimental measurements, which are carried out. Finally, parametric studies have been carried out. The comparison between the modified exergy efficiency of the present work and the one given by previous literature shows that the modified exergy efficiency obtained in this paper has not the deficiencies of the exergy efficiency given by the previous literature and it shows exergy loss terms in PVT system directly.

Application of energy and exergy analysis to increase efficiency of a hot water gas fired boiler

Chemical Industry and Chemical Engineering Quarterly, 2014

In engineering practice exergy can be used for technical and economic optimization of energy conversion processes. The problem of increasing energy consumption suggests that heating plants, i.e. hot water boilers, as energy suppliers for household heating should be subjected to exergy and energy analysis. Heating plants are typically designed to meet energy demands, without the distinguished difference between quality and quantity of the produced heat. In this paper, the energy and exergy analysis of a gas fired hot water boiler is conducted. Energy analysis gives only quantitative results, while exergy analysis provides an insight into the actually available useful energy with respect to the system environment. In this paper, a hot water boiler was decomposed into control volumes with respect to its functional components. Energy and exergy of the created physical model of the hot water boiler is performed and destruction of exergy and energy loss in each of the components is calcul...