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Effect of obstruction on thermal performance of solar water heaters

遮挡对太阳能热水器热性能的影响

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Abstract

Solar water heaters (SWH) are widely used in urban areas because of their advantages in reducing energy consumption and mitigating greenhouse gas emissions. However, the performance of SWH subjected to obstructions is unclear yet. In this study, we present a numerical evaluation on thermal performance of façade-installed SWH under three typical obstructed scenarios, based on various levels of sunshine duration. This study is carried out for four locations with various latitudes across China. Thermal performance is measured by solar fraction for annual and monthly evaluation. The results show that the obstruction can seriously degrade annual solar fraction of SWH, even in the 4-hour sunshine duration scenario, for all the studied locations. Interestingly, only lengthening sunshine duration in the standard day (e.g., from 2 h to 4 h) may not result in increasing annual solar fraction markedly. In terms of the monthly performance, solar fraction in January and December decreases significantly, while from May to August it just declines slightly, except for Guangzhou having a swift reduction. This study can provide insights into the behavior and promote the appropriate application of SWH in urban areas.

摘要

太阳能热水器由于在减少能源消耗和温室气体排放方面的优势而被广泛应用于城市地区, 但是, 建筑遮挡对其热性能的影响尚不清楚。本文选取中国4 个纬度不同的地区(哈尔滨、北京、长沙和广 州), 分别对三种典型遮挡情形下立面安装太阳能热水器的热性能进行了对比研究。 遮挡情形利用日 照持续时间来进行定义。 热性能采用太阳能保证率来进行评价。 结果表明, 对于所有研究地点, 即使 在4 h 日照持续时间情况下, 遮挡也会严重降低年太阳能保证率; 而且仅延长标准日的日照时间 (例如 从2 h 延长至4 h) 可能不会明显提升年太阳能保证率。 而对于每月热性能而言,遮挡会引起1 月和 12 月的太阳能保证率显著下降, 除广州外的3 个城市5 月至8 月的太阳能保证率仅略有下降,而广州 的太阳能保证率迅速下降。 本研究阐明了遮挡环境下太阳能热水器的运行特性, 有利于促进其在城市 建筑中的合理应用。

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Abbreviations

d r :

Distance ratio

ΔH :

Height difference between the bottom of collector and the top edge of obstructing building, m

f :

Solar fraction

h :

Height above the ground of the bottom of collector, m

H :

Height of the building, m

W 0 :

Annual energy consumption using conventional water heater, kW·h

W SWH :

Annual energy consumption by SWH, kW·h

S :

Horizontal distance between obstructing and obstructed building, m

W :

Width of obstructing building, m

w r :

Width radio

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering, Central South University of Forestry and Technology, Changsha, 410004, China

    Da-peng Li  (李大鹏) & Yu-fan Wang  (王宇凡)

  2. School of Energy Science and Engineering, Central South University, Changsha, 410083, China

    Gang Liu  (刘刚) & Sheng-ming Liao  (廖胜明)

  3. School of Civil Engineering, Hunan University of Science and Technology, Xiangtan, 411201, China

    Xian-ping Liu  (刘仙萍)

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  1. Da-peng Li  (李大鹏)
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Correspondence to Da-peng Li  (李大鹏).

Additional information

Foundation item: Projects(2017JJ3517, 2017JJ3090) supported by the Natural Science Foundation of Hunan Province, China; Project(2018NK2066) supported by the Key Research and Development Program of Hunan Province, China; Project(QJ2017007B) supported by the Youth Scientific Research Foundation of Central South University of Forestry and Technology, China

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Li, Dp., Wang, Yf., Liu, G. et al. Effect of obstruction on thermal performance of solar water heaters. J. Cent. South Univ. 27, 1273–1289 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11771-020-4366-2

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