Field Performance of Photovoltaic Solar Water Heating Systems.
Field Performance of Photovoltaic Solar Water Heating
Systems.
(1073 K)
Fanney, A. H.; Dougherty, B. P.; Kramp, K. P.
International Solar Energy Conference. Proceedings.
Solar Engineering 1997. Held in Conjunction With The
Solar Energy Forum. American Society of Mechanical
Engineers. April 27-30, 1997, Washington, DC, American
Society of Mechanical Engineers, New York, NY, Claridge,
D. E.; Pacheco, J. E., Editor(s)(s), 171-182 pp, 1997.
ASME Journal of Solar Energy Engineering, Vol. 119,
265-272, November 1997.
Sponsor:
American Society of Mechanical Engineers, New York, NY
Keywords:
water heaters; solar; Florida Solar Energy Center; Great
Smoky Mountain National Park; solar collectors; solar
energy
Abstract:
Energy consumed for water heating accounts for
approximately 17 quads of the energy consumed by
residential and commercial buildings. Although there
are over 90 million water heaters currently in use
within the United States, durability and installation
issues as well as initial cost have limited the sales of
solar water heaters to less than 1 million units.
Durability issues have included freeze and fluid leakage
problems, failure of pumps and their associated
controllers, the loss of heat transfer fluids under
stagnation conditions, and heat exchanger fouling. The
installation of solar water heating systems has often
proved difficult, requiring roof penetrations for the
piping that transports fluid to and from the solar
collectors. Fanney and Dougherty have recently proposed
and patented a solar water heating system that
eliminates the durability and installation problems
associated with current solar water heating systems.
The system employs photovoltaic modules to generate
electrical energy which is dissipated in multiple
electric elements. A microprocessor controller is used
to match the electrical resistance of the load to the
operating characteristics of the photovoltaic modules.
