Evaluating the Performance of Two Solar Domestic Hot Water Systems of the Archetype ...

154 Pages·2013·2.63 MB·English

by  Kamyar Tanha

Ryerson University
Digital Commons @ Ryerson
Theses and dissertations
1-1-2012
Evaluating the Performance of Two Solar Domestic
Hot Water Systems of the Archetype Sustainable
Houses
Kamyar Tanha
Ryerson University
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(2012).Theses and dissertations.Paper 793.
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EVALUATING THE PERFORMANCE OF TWO SOLAR DOMESTIC HOT WATER
SYSTEMS OF THE ARCHETYPE SUSTAINABLE HOUSES

By
Kamyar Tanha
B.Sc. (Mechanical Engineering)
University of Tehran, Iran, 2001

A thesis
presented to Ryerson University

In partial fulfillment of the
requirements for the degree of

MASTER OF APPLIED SCIENCE

In the program of
Mechanical Engineering

Toronto, Ontario, Canada, 2012

© Kamyar Tanha, 2012
Author’s Declaration

I hereby declare that I am the sole author of this thesis. This is a true copy of the thesis, including
any required final revisions, as accepted by my examiners.

I authorize Ryerson University to lend this thesis to other institutions or individuals for the
purpose of scholarly research.

I further authorize Ryerson University to reproduce this thesis by photocopying or by other
means, in total or in part, at the request of other institutions or individuals for the purpose of
scholarly research.

I understand that my thesis may be made electronically available to the pubic.

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EVALUATING THE PERFORMANCE OF TWO SOLAR DOMESTIC HOT WATER
SYSTEMS OF THE ARCHETYPE SUSTAINABLE HOUSES
Kamyar Tanha
Master of Applied Science
Program of Mechanical Engineering
Ryerson University, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, 2012

Abstract
This thesis is focused on the performance of the two SDHW systems of the sustainable
Archetype houses in Vaughan, Ontario with daily hot water consumption of 225 litres. The first
system consists of a flat plate solar thermal collector in conjunction with a gas boiler and a
DWHR. The second SDHW system consists of an evacuated tube collector, an electric tank and
a DWHR. The experimental results showed that the DWHRs were capable of an annual heat
recovery of 789 kWh. The flat plate and evacuated tube collectors had an annual thermal energy
output of 2038 kWh and 1383 kWh. The systems were also modeled in TRNSYS and validated
with the experimental results. The simulated results showed that Edmonton has the highest
annual energy consumption of 3763.4 kWh and 2852.9 kWh by gas boiler and electric tank and
that the solar thermal collectors and DWHRs are most beneficial in Edmonton.

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Acknowledgements
This thesis would not have been come to the light without extended cooperation of author’s
supervisor Dr. Alan S. Fung. His guidance helped to finish this stupendous task. The author
conveys from the bottom of his heart, his total indebtedness to his supervisor. The author is ever
grateful to Dahai Zhang, a Ph.D. candidate for his generous help. He also expresses gratitude to
his colleagues for their continuous support. He is very grateful to the Regional Municipality of
Peel, Regional Municipality of York, City of Toronto, Building Industry and Land Development
(BILD) Association, Toronto Region and Conservation Authority (TRCA), MITACS Accelerate,
Reliance Home Comfort and Union Gas Ltd for their financial support to implement the
monitoring project. The author would also express special thanks to Mr. David Nixon, Warren
Yates, Derrik Ashby and Gil Amdursky for their concerted effort on implementing the
instrumentation of monitoring system and Professor Leo Salemi of George Brown College for
system networking support.

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This work is dedicated to my respected parents, and my lovely wife.
All of whom tried me in various ways to guide me and help forward the cause espoused by me.

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Table of Contents
Author’s Declaration ....................................................................................................................... ii
Abstract .......................................................................................................................................... iii
Acknowledgements ........................................................................................................................ iv
List of Tables ................................................................................................................................. ix
List of Figures ............................................................................................................................... xii
Abbreviations ............................................................................................................................. xviii
Nomenclature ................................................................................................................................ xx
Chapter 1 : Literature Review ........................................................................................................ 1
1.1. Objectives ............................................................................................................................. 4
Chapter 2 : Literature Review ........................................................................................................ 5
2.1. Drain Water Heat Recovery ................................................................................................. 5
2.2. Solar Thermal Collectors ..................................................................................................... 8
2.3. DHW Draw Profiles ........................................................................................................... 11
2.4. Renewable Technologies in DHW production................................................................... 13
Chapter 3 : Domestic Water Heating ............................................................................................ 17
3.1. Domestic Water Heater Types ........................................................................................... 18
3.1.1. Conventional Storage Tanks ........................................................................................ 18
3.1.2. Tankless Water Heaters ............................................................................................... 19
3.1.3. Integrated Space/Water Heaters .................................................................................. 19
3.1.4. Heat Pump Water Heaters ........................................................................................... 20
3.1.5. Solar Water Heaters ..................................................................................................... 21
3.2. Efficiency of Domestic Water Heaters............................................................................... 22
3.3. Domestic Water Heater Standards ..................................................................................... 24
Chapter 4 : Archetype House Description .................................................................................... 27
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4.1. DWH System of House-A .................................................................................................. 29
4.2. DWH System of House-B .................................................................................................. 31
Chapter 5 : Methodology .............................................................................................................. 34
5.1. Monitoring System ............................................................................................................. 34
5.2. Data Acquisition (DAQ) System........................................................................................ 34
5.2.1. LabVIEW Software ..................................................................................................... 35
5.2.2. SQL Server Management Studio ................................................................................. 35
5.3. Sensors ............................................................................................................................... 36
5.3.1. Temperature Sensors ................................................................................................... 37
5.3.2. Liquid Flow Meters ..................................................................................................... 37
5.4. Calibration of Sensors ........................................................................................................ 37
5.6. Energy Consumption, Generation and Efficiency Calculation Equations ......................... 40
5.6.1. Water ........................................................................................................................... 40
5.6.2. Propylene Glycol (PG) Solution .................................................................................. 41
5.6.3. Energy Consumption, Generation and Efficiency Equations for Equipment in House-
A ............................................................................................................................................ 42
Thermal power supplied to the DHWT by the boiler is obtained by using: .......................... 44
Thermal power supplied to the house load by the DHWT is also achieved from Equation (5-
7). ........................................................................................................................................... 44
5.6.4. Energy Consumption, Generation and Efficiency Equations for Equipments in House-
B............................................................................................................................................. 47
Thermal power supplied by the solar preheat tank is calculated by using Equation (5-7). ... 47
Thermal power supplied by the electric tank is calculated by using Equation (5-7)............. 48
Chapter 6 : Data analysis .............................................................................................................. 51
6.1. Drain Water Heat Recovery System .................................................................................. 51
6.1.1. Performance of DWHR Systems ................................................................................. 52
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6.1.2. DWHR Systems in the Twin Archetype Houses ......................................................... 54
6.1.3. Daily Water Draw Profiles .......................................................................................... 55
6.1.4. Operational Performance of DWHR Systems ............................................................. 57
6.1.5. Extrapolated Data ........................................................................................................ 68
6.2. Solar Thermal Collectors ................................................................................................... 71
6.2.1. Flat Plate Solar Thermal Collector .............................................................................. 74
6.2.2. Evacuated Tube Solar Thermal Collector ................................................................... 79
6.2.3. Solar Thermal Collectors’ Performance Comparison ................................................. 86
6.2.4. Extrapolated Data ........................................................................................................ 89
6.3. Overall Performance of the Archetype Houses’ SDWH Systems ..................................... 91
Chapter 7 : TRNSYS Simulations ................................................................................................ 94
7.1. Twin Houses SDWH Systems Modeling ........................................................................... 95
7.2. House-A SDWH System .................................................................................................... 98
7.3. House-B SDWH System .................................................................................................. 100
7.4. SDWH Systems Performance in Major Canadian Cities ................................................. 102
Chapter 8 : Author’s Contribution and Conclusion .................................................................... 107
8.1. Conclusions ...................................................................................................................... 107
8.2. Recommendations ............................................................................................................ 110
Appendix A: Sensor address, list, type and location .................................................................. 112
Appendix B: Experimental Uncertainty Analysis ....................................................................... 125
B1. Uncertainty of Sensors and Calibrators ............................................................................ 125
B2. Propagation of Errors........................................................................................................ 126
B3. Uncertainty analysis of mechanical system/equipment .................................................... 126
References ................................................................................................................................... 128

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List of Tables
Table 3-1: Water Heating Secondary Energy Use and Intensity by Energy Source (NRCan, 2009)
.................................................................................................................................................. 17
Table 3-2: Energy Efficiency Regulations for Canadian Water Storage Tank Heaters (Canada
Gazette, 2004) .......................................................................................................................... 25
Table 3-3: U.S Standards for Federally Regulated Water Heaters (California Energy
Commission, 2006) .................................................................................................................. 26
Table 4-1: Comparison of HVAC systems among housing standards (Zhang, et al. 2011) .... 28
Table 4-2: Basic design features of House-A and House-B (Zhang et al., 2011) .................... 28
Table 4-3: Structural features of the twin houses (Zhang et al., 2011) .................................... 28
Table 4-4: Mechanical features of the twin houses (Zhang et al., 2011) ................................. 29
Table 4-5: Detail specifications and technical data of the DHW system components in House-A
.................................................................................................................................................. 31
Table 4-6: Detail specifications and technical data of the DHW system components in House-A
.................................................................................................................................................. 33
Table 5-1: Sensor name and its output signal .......................................................................... 34
Table 5-2: List of DWH systems’ components with their related sensors and input parameters36
Table 5-3: List of sensors for DHW systems and calibrators (Barua, 2010) ........................... 38
Table 5-4: List of events and different flow rates used for the water draw Schedule in winter39
Table 5-5: List of events and different flow rates used for the water draw Schedule in summer39
Table 6-1: General specifications of Power-pipe R3-36 DWHR ............................................ 54
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