A practical method to determine the temperature of a solar thermal energy storage tank
Document Type : Original Article
Author
Department of physics, Mathematical College, Sirjan University of Technology, Sirjan, Iran
Abstract
Solar energy (renewable energy) can play a key role in supplying the increasing energy need of humans and decrease air pollution. The production of hot water in houses for consumption is the most common use of solar energy. In the present study, a solar water heater system (SWHS) is studied using solar parabolic collector and heat exchanger. The aim of this study was to compare the theoretical and experimental temperature of a thermal energy storage tank (TEST). To achieve this goal, the temperatures of TEST were measured at constant time intervals, experimentally. Moreover, the temperatures of TEST were also estimated using the Euler integration method. The comparison of temperature values shows that the Euler method is the exact method to estimate the temperature of TEST. Also, the temperature variations of the water tank versus time show that the heat losses of the system is low, as well the heat exchanger transfer thermal energy to the water tank as well. Therefore, it can be said that the system is efficient and applicable to SWHS for building.
Keywords
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