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Original Articles

Comparative study on performances of a heat-pipe PV/T system and a heat-pipe solar water heating system

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Pages 229-240 | Published online: 21 Mar 2016
 

ABSTRACT

The heat-pipe solar water heating (HP-SWH) system and the heat-pipe photovoltaic/thermal (HP-PV/T) system are two practical solar systems, both of which use heat pipes to transfer heat. By selecting appropriate working fluid of the heat-pipes, these systems can be used in the cold region without being frozen. However, performances of these two solar systems are different because the HP-PV/T system can simultaneously provide electricity and heat, whereas the HP-SWH system provides heat only. In order to understand these two systems, this work presents a mathematical model for each system to study their one-day and annual performances. One-day simulation results showed that the HP-SWH system obtained more thermal energy and total energy than the HP-PV/T system while the HP-PV/T system achieved higher exergy efficiency than the HP-SWH system. Annual simulation results indicated that the HP-SWH system can heat the water to the available temperature (45°C) solely by solar energy for more than 121 days per year in typical climate regions of China, Hong Kong, Lhasa, and Beijing, while the HP-PV/T system can only work for not more than 102 days. The HP-PV/T system, however, can provide an additional electricity output of 73.019 kWh/m2, 129.472 kWh/m2, and 90.309 kWh/m2 per unit collector area in the three regions, respectively.

Additional information

Funding

The study was sponsored by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (51308342), the Shenzhen Research Foundation of Science & Technology (JCYJ20140418182819191 and JCYJ20130329113322731), the Key Laboratory of New Lithium-ion Battery and Mesoporous Materials (20120208), and the Key Laboratory of Efficient and Clean Energy Utilization of Guangdong Higher Education Institutes, South China University of technology (KLB10004).

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