Abstract

In a solar water heating system, the most frequently met difficulty is to obtain the hot water at a
required temperature continuously due to variation in the incident solar radiation over a day or
even in the different seasons of the year. This work deals with the designing of a control
mechanism based on the sensed temperatures, along with the water flow rates from the two
systems, primary (hot water source) and secondary (cold water source), which are continuously
monitored. This mechanism proposes a solution to the problem of obtaining warm water at a
desired temperature and fulfilling the temperature specific activities as it estimates the amount of
cold water to be supplied from the secondary source. Further, the energy consumption can also
be reduced by implementing a hybrid mode (using a solar water heater and an electric heater),
where the water will be preheated by the solar water heater. As a result, the electricity expenses
of the electric heater can be curtailed.
 INTRODUCTION

Since time immemorial, solar energy has been harnessed for the welfare of mankind. Use of solar
energy can not only reduce the gap between demand and supply of energy, but can also
[1]
financially benefit the users by reducing the running costs of the appliances . Solar water
heating system is one of the simplest way of utilizing solar thermal energy. They are deemed
cheaper due to their low capital investment and almost zero or nearly negligible maintenance
cost as compared to other conventional ones. Further, these systems contribute towards reducing
environmental pollution and maintaining ecological balance. The consumption of hot water
depends on its use whether domestic or industrial and also on seasonal variations like summer or
winter. Domestic hot water consumption mainly depends on the geographical condition, the
[2]
countrys customs, type of building usage and on the lifestyle of the inhabitants . Process
heating and space heating are the main applications of hot water in industries where each process
require water at different temperatures. The required quantity or temperature of hot water is
primarily governed by the type of application. A huge amount of electricity or other conventional
energy is consumed in heating this water, but by wisely operating the solar water heater (SWH) a
significant amount of this conventional energy can be saved. Use of alternative energy can
reduce the operation of diesel generators. In major parts of India good solar power is available
and in most parts sufficient wind can also be tapped. In this paper, a practical implementation of
solar-wind hybrid power on a typical rural Indian cell site is presented. Solar hybrid power
systems are hybrid power systems that combine solar power from a photovoltaic system with
another power generating energy source. A common type is a photovoltaic diesel hybrid system,
combining photovoltaics (PV) and diesel generators, or diesel gensets, as PV has hardly any
marginal cost and is treated with priority on the grid. The diesel gensets are used to constantly
fill in the gap between the present load and the actual generated power by the PV system.

As solar energy is fluctuating, and the generation capacity of the diesel genesets is limited to a
certain range, it is often a viable option to include battery storage in order to optimize solar's
contribution to the overall generation of the hybrid system.
 Fig. 1. Block diagram of the proposed model

Sample designs include a simple glass-topped insulated box with a flat solar absorber made of
sheet metal, attached to copper heat exchanger pipes and dark-colored, or a set of metal tubes
surrounded by an evacuated (near vacuum) glass cylinder. In industrial cases a parabolic
mirror can concentrate sunlight on the tube. Heat is stored in a hot water storage tank. The
volume of this tank needs to be larger with solar heating systems to compensate for bad weather
and because the optimum final temperature for the solar collector is lower than a typical
immersion or combustion heater. The heat transfer fluid (HTF) for the absorber may be water,
but more commonly (at least in active systems) is a separate loop of fluid containing anti-
freeze and a corrosion inhibitor delivers heat to the tank through a heat exchanger (commonly a
coil of copper heat exchanger tubing within the tank). Copper is an important component in solar
thermal heating and cooling systems because of its high heat conductivity, atmospheric and water
corrosion resistance, sealing and joining by soldering and mechanical strength. Copper is used
both in receivers and primary circuits (pipes and heat exchangers for water tanks Another lower-
maintenance concept is the 'drain-back'. No anti-freeze is required; instead, all the piping is
sloped to cause water to drain back to the tank. The tank is not pressurized and operates at
atmospheric pressure. As soon as the pump shuts off, flow reverses and the pipes empty before
freezing can occur Residential solar thermal installations fall into two groups: passive
(sometimes called "compact") and active (sometimes called "pumped") systems. Both typically
include an auxiliary energy source (electric heating element or connection to a gas or fuel oil
central heating system) that is activated when the water in the tank falls below a minimum
temperature setting, ensuring that hot water is always available. The combination of solar water
heating and back-up heat from a wood stove chimney can enable a hot water system to work all
year round in cooler climates, without the supplemental heat requirement of a solar water heating
system being met with fossil fuels or electricity When a solar water heating and hot-water central
heating system are used together, solar heat will either be concentrated in a pre-heating tank that
feeds into the tank heated by the central heating, or the solar heat exchanger will replace the
lower heating element and the upper element will remain to provide for supplemental heat.
However, the primary need for central heating is at night and in winter when solar gain is lower.
Therefore, solar water heating for washing and bathing is often a better application than central
heating because supply and demand are better matched. In many climates, a solar hot water
system can provide up to 85% of domestic hot water energy. This can include domestic non-
electric concentrating solar thermal systems. In many northern European countries, combined hot
water and space heating systems are used to provide 15 to 25% of home heating energy. When
combined with storage, large scale solar heating can provide 50-97% of annual heat consumption
for district heating.
 LITTERATURE SURVEY
Soteris A. Kalogirou et al [1] presents a survey of the various types of solar thermal collectors
and applications. All the solar systems which utilize the solar energy and its application depends
upon the solar collector such as flat-plate, compound parabolic, evacuated tube, parabolic trough,
Fresnel lens, parabolic dish and heliostat field collectors which are used in these system. The
solar collectors are used for domestic, commercial and industrial purposes. These include solar
water heating, which comprise thermosiphon, integrated collector storage, direct and indirect
systems and air systems, space heating and cooling, which comprise, space heating and service
hot water, air and water systems and heat pumps, refrigeration, industrial process heat, which
comprise air and water systems and steam generation systems, desalination, thermal power
systems, which comprise the parabolic trough, power tower and dish systems, solar furnaces, and
chemistry applications.

Mustafa AKTAB et al [2] describe experimental analysis of optimum fin size, which can be
used in heat exchanger in solar energy systems, has been performed. For this purpose, two
systems, one of which is classic and the other finned, were designed and manufactured.
According to the experimental tests, which lasted for six days, the system with a fin is 7% more
efficient than the classical system. Therefore, it has been concluded that it is useful to use fins

Samara Sadrin et al [3] present the alternative method of solar water heating system. This
automated system would allow the user to get hot water from the solar water heater as long as the
solar water heater can supply hot water above a set temperature. If the solar water heater is
unable to supply water above the set temperature, then only will the electric water heater come
into action. It is efficient because our controller ensures that the solar water heater is used to
supply hot water 80% of the time, and the rest 20% will be supplied by the electric water heater.
It is cheap because, our system runs on solar energy which is abundant and free. It uses very
small amount of electricity and therefore, reduces the expenses for the user.
P. Rhushi Prasad et al [4] present experiment analysis of flat plate collector and comparison of
performance with tracking collector. A flat plate water heater, which is commercially available
with a capacity of 100 liters/day is instrumented and developed into a test-rig to conduct the
experimental work. Experiments were conducted for a week during which the atmospheric
conditions were almost uniform and data was collected both for fixed and tracked conditions of
the flat plate collector. The results show that there is an average increase of 40C in the outlet
temperature. The efficiency of both the conditions was calculated and the comparison shows that
there is an increase of about 21% in the percentage of efficiency.

R. Herrero et al [5] describe enhancement techniques for flat-plate liquid solar collectors. Tube-
side enhancement passive techniques can consist of adding additional devices which are
incorporated into a smooth round tube (twisted tapes, wire coils), modifying the surface of a
smooth tube (corrugated and dimpled tubes) or making special tube geometries (internally finned
tubes). For the typical operating flow rates in flat-plate solar collectors, the most suitable
technique is inserted devices. Based on previous studies from the authors, wire coils were
selected for enhancing heat transfer. This type of inserted device experiment at any particular
time considered is obtained in case 3 experiment using zig-zag arrangement.

K.K. Chong et al [5] discuss optical analysis, experimental study and cost analysis of the
stationary V-trough solar water hea1111111111ter system are presented. The novel stationary V-
trough solar water heater with the maximum solar concentration ratio of 1.8 suns has been
proposed to improve the thermal efficiency of the whole system. The advantages of the new
proposal are that easy to be fabricated, cost effective and high thermal efficiency. The collected
data has shown that the prototype has achieved the optical efficiency of 70.54% or 1.41 suns and
the temperature of 85.9 0C. The prototype can be easily constructed through DIY using off-the-
shelf materials with total cost of RM 1489.40 and total payback period of 12.2 year for
discounted form or 8.9 years for undiscounted form.

S. Sadhishkumar et al [6] paper summarizes the previous works on solar water heating systems
with various heat transfer enhancement techniques include collector design, collector tilt angle,
coating of pipes, fluid flow rate, thermal insulation, integrated collector storage, thermal energy
storage, use of phase change materials, and insertion of twisted tapes. This paper also discussed
the methods to optimize and simulate the solar water heating systems to understand flow and
thermal behavior in solar collectors that would lead to the improvement of the thermal
performance of solar collectors. The enhancement of heat transfer in the solar collector with
twisted tape is found to be better than the conventional plain tube collector. In solar water
heating systems twisted tape has been used as one of the passive techniques to augment the heat
transfer. Twisted tape has been used in heat exchangers but their applications are limited in solar
water heating systems.

P. Sivakumar et al [7] discuss improving the performance of a flat plate solar energy collector
by changing the design parameters of the number of riser tubes and the arrangement of riser
tubes in zig-zag pattern from the existing flat plat collector system. Experiments were conducted
using copper tube in header and riser with different dimensions. The performance shows that the
efficiency is 59.09% when increasing the number of riser tubes and its 62.90% in the zig-zag
arrangement (Z- Configuration) of the riser tube.. The maximum collector efficiency during the
day of

Wattana Ratismith et al [8] describes the design of the PTC in which increase the outlet
temperature by reducing heat loss. In this design the maximum efficiency of the collector is 32%
and has an ability to achieve high output temperature, the maximum temperature at header of
evacuated tube is 235 degrees Celsius, and is therefore suitable for high temperature application
such as industrial uses.

Soteris A. Kalogirou [9] presents a survey of the various types of solar thermal collectors and
applications. All the solar systems which utilize the solar energy and its application depends
upon the solar collector such as flat-plate, compound parabolic, evacuated tube, parabolic trough,
Fresnel lens, parabolic dish and heliostat field collectors which are used in these system. The
solar collectors are used for domestic, commercial and industrial purposes. These include solar
water heating, which comprise thermosyphon, integrated collector storage, direct and indirect
systems and air systems, space heating and cooling, which comprise, space heating and service
hot water, air and water systems and heat pumps, refrigeration, industrial process heat comprise
air and water systems and steam generation systems, desalination, thermal power systems, which
comprise the parabolic trough, power tower and dish systems, solar furnaces, and chemistry
applications.

R. Herrero et al [10] describe enhancement techniques for flat-plate liquid solar collectors.
Tube-side enhancement passive techniques can consist of adding additional devices which are
incorporated into a smooth round tube (twisted tapes, wire coils), modifying the surface of a
smooth tube (corrugated and dimpled tubes) or making special tube geometries (internally finned
tubes). For the typical operating flow rates in flat-plate solar collectors, the most suitable
technique is inserted devices. Based on previous studies from the authors, wire coils were
selected for enhancing heat transfer. This type of inserted device provides better results in
laminar, transitional and low turbulence fluid flow regimes.