Chapter 5

SOLAR WATER HEATING

5.1 Introduction
• An obvious use of solar energy is for heating air and water.
• Dwellings in cold climates need heated air for comfort, and in all countries
hot water is used for washing and other domestic purposes.
• About 30% of the UK’s energy consumption is beneficial for heat in
buildings and of Australia’s energy consumption, about 20%.
• Because of this, the manufacture of solar water heaters has become an
established industry in several countries, especially Australia, Greece,
Israel, USA, Japan and China.
• The great majority of solar water heaters are for domestic properties,
despite large volumes of hot water being used for process heat in industry.
• If the solar heat is collected in a fluid, usually water or air, which is then
moved by pumps or fans for use, the solar system is said to be active.
• This chapter concentrates on active solar water heaters, since they are
common worldwide, they allow practical experiments in teaching and
their analysis can provide a step-by-step appreciation of fundamentals for
both active and passive applications.
• In this chapter we discuss only water heating, starting with essentials and
then discussing successively the various refinements. These refinements
either increase the proportion of radiation absorbed by the heater or
decrease the heat lost from the system.

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 Chapter 5

SOLAR WATER HEATING

Active Solar Water Heating Systems

There are two types of active solar water heating systems:

Direct circulation systems

Pumps circulate household water through the collectors and into the home. They work well in
climates where it rarely freezes.
Indirect circulation systems
Pumps circulate a non-freezing, heat-transfer fluid through the collectors and a heat
exchanger. This heats the water that then flows into the home. They are popular in climates
prone to freezing temperatures.

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 Chapter 5

SOLAR WATER HEATING

Passive Solar Water Heating Systems

Passive solar water heating systems are typically less expensive than active
systems, but they're usually not as efficient. However, passive systems can be more
reliable and may last longer. There are two basic types of passive systems:

Integral collector-storage passive systems

These work best in areas where temperatures rarely fall below freezing. They also
work well in households with significant daytime and evening hot-water needs.
Thermosyphon systems
Water flows through the system when warm water rises as cooler water sinks. The
collector must be installed below the storage tank so that warm water will rise into
the tank. These systems are reliable, but contractors must pay careful attention to
the roof design because of the heavy storage tank. They are usually more
expensive than integral collector-storage passive systems.

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 5.1 Introduction 117

• The main part of a solar heating system is the collector, where solar
radia- tion is absorbed and energy is transferred to the fluid.
Collectors considered in this chapter do not concentrate the solar
irradiance by mirrors or lenses; they are classed either as flat plate
or as evacuated collectors, in contrast to the focusing collectors.
• Non-focusing collectors absorb both beam and diffuse radiation, and
therefore still function when beam radiation is cut off by cloud. This
advantage, together with their ease of operation and favorable cost,
means that non-focusing collectors are generally preferred for
heating fluids to temperatures less than about 80 ○C.
• The simpler collectors hold all the water that is to be heated. The
more refined collectors, heat only a little water, with the heated
water then usually accumulated in a separate storage tank.
• Refinements improve efficiency by reducing the heat losses from the
system as a whole. Therefore many solar water heaters heat the
water indirectly with the collected heat being transferred to potable
water in a storage tank through a heat exchanger. A separate fluid in
such solar collectors, e.g. an oil or antifreeze solution, is chosen to
reduce corrosion, and which does not freeze in winter or boil in nor-
mal operation.

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118 Solar water heating

5.2 Calculation of heat balance: general remarks

All solar collectors include an absorbing surface
which may be called the plate. The radiant flux
striking the plate is tcov Ap G, where G is the
irradiance on the collector, Ap is the exposed area of
(5.1)

the plate and Tcov is the transmittance of any

transparent cover that may be used to protect the
plate from the wind. Only a fraction ap of this flux is
actually absorbed. Since the plate is hotter than its
surroundings, it loses heat at a rate (Tp − Ta)/RL,
where RL is the resistance to heat loss from the plate
(temperature Tp) to the outside environment
(temperature Ta). The net heat flow into the plate is

Pnet = tcovap Ap G − [(Tp − Ta)/RL]

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 5.3 Uncovered solar water heaters –
progressive analysis 119

5.3 Uncovered solar water heaters – progressive analysis

1. Uncovered container on the ground
This is the simplest possible water ‘heater’ is an outdoor swimming pool is a
common example of a container of water exposed to sunshine, and on, or in,
the ground. On a sunny day the water is warmed, but the temperature rise is
limited as heat is conducted easily to the ground and also lost by evaporation
and convection. Having black surfaces would increase absorption, but
obscure cleanliness.

2. Uncovered, open container off the ground

Raising the open container off the ground reduces conductive loss, but much
of the heat that is retained goes into increased evaporation, thus lessening the
temperature increase.

3. Enclosed black container; black tank

Here the water is enclosed in a shallow matt-black tank or bag. So no heat is
lost by evaporation. The matt-black outer surface absorbs

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120 Solar water heating

radiation well (typically a = 0.9). Some of this absorbed heat is then

passed to the water inside by conduction. This type of heater is
cheap, easy to make and gives moderately hot water (∼20 ○C above
ambient), but may have a short lifetime. Loss of heat by forced
convection from wind severely limits the performance. Despite the
simplicity of construction, however, the analysis of the heating is
relatively complex.

4 Black container with rear insulation

The heat losses of the system can be almost halved simply by
insulating the bottom of the container. Almost any material that
traps air in a matrix of small volumes is useful as an insulator on this
rear side, e.g. fiber-glass, expanded polystyrene or wood shavings.
The thermal conductivity of all these materials is comparable with
that of still air (k ∼ 0.03 W m−1 K−1). The insulating volumes of air
must not be too large, since otherwise the air will transfer heat by
convection. Also the material must be dry, since water within the
matrix is a much better conductor than air.
Only a few centimeters of insulation is required to increase the
bottom resistance to ten times the resistance of the top. Despite the
need for a container to keep the material dry, this is almost always
cost-effective for rear insulation.
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 5.4 Improved solar water heaters 123

5.4 Improved solar water heaters

5.4.1 Sheltered black container
The container can be sheltered from the wind and so has
convective loss reduced by encapsulating it in a covered box with a
trans- parent lid. Glass is often the chosen cover material, having
small absorptance for the solar short wave irradiation. Clear, i.e.
new, polythene sheet also has small short wave absorptance and is
cheaper initially, but has to be cleaned and replaced more
frequently since it degrades in the open environment. Moreover,
glass has a significantly smaller transmittance for infrared
radiation than polythene, so it absorbs the infrared radiation
otherwise lost from the top of the container. This is the
‘greenhouse effect’ of glass. Polythene is unusual in being
transparent to infrared radiation and therefore not good as a
cover. However, other types of plastic are available for solar
collector covers that have similar properties to glass, but are
tougher.

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 5.5 Systems with separate storage 129

5.5 Systems with separate storage

5.5.1 Active systems with forced circulati on

The collectors can heat only a small volume of water which, therefore, should be passed to an insulated tank
for storage (Figure 5.6). For domestic systems, tanks with a volume of about 100–200 litres can store a day’s
supply of hot water. For forced circulation only a small pump is needed, designed with a pumping rate so the
water temperature increases by about 5–10 ○C in passing through the collector in sunshine. This incre-
mental temperature increase depends on the solar irradiance G and the inlet temperature T1 , so the design
temperature rise will be achieved only for one set of conditions if a fixed-speed pump is used. Nevertheless,
single-speed pumps are usually used, as they are the cheapest. The pumps are powered either from mains
electricity or, in some designs, from a small photovoltaic panel alongside the collector. A simple pump
controller switches the pump off if the collector output temperature is less than about 5 ○C more than the
water in the top of the tank. This prevents needless use of the pump and, in particular, the stupidity of losing
heat from the collector in poor sunlight and at night.

Figure 5.6 Collector coupled to a separate storage tank by a pump.

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 130 Solar water heating

• An advantage of forced circulation is that an existing water heater

system can easily be converted to solar input by adding collectors
and a pump.
• The system is also likely to be more efficient, and the storage tank
need not be higher than the collectors.
• A disadvantage, however, is that the system is dependent on
electricity for the pump, which may be expensive or unreliable.
For larger installations and in cooler climates, e.g. most of
Europe, hot-water tanks are included below the roof within
buildings, so forced circulation solar water heating is the norm.
• Figure 5.7 shows the potable hot water going directly into the
top of the storage tank. In principle this leads to a stable
stratification, with the hottest (least dense) water at the top of
the tank, though this will not be the case if the water coming
from the collector is cooler than that at the top of the tank.
• Also the temperature of the water delivered to the user depends
on the height at which the tank is tapped. In some systems the
internal configuration of the tank is designed to minimise the
stratification, by promoting mixing of the warmer and cooler
water; in this way the water obtained is always ‘warm’ provided
that the extraction rate is not too large.
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 5.5 Systems with separate storage 131

Figure 5.7 Collector and storage tank with thermosyphon circulation. (a) Physical diagram. (b)
Temperature distribution.

• Other systems are designed to promote stratification, so that the hottest

water available is drawn off, but this is desirable only if the volume drawn off
is significantly less than the total volume of the tank; this may be desirable in
colder climates.
• One ingenious way to achieve this is to have the hot water enter through a
vertical pipe with temperature-sensitive valves distributed vertically up it;
water then flows into the tank only at the level at which its temperature
exceeds that of the water already in the tank
5.5.2 Passive systems with thermosyphon circulation
Combining the water storage with the collector in one unit at roof height and
with no external pump, is common for domestic use in countries with a
generally hot climate, e.g. Africa and Australia. The water circulation in such a
thermosyphon system (Figure 5.7), with the storage tank above the collector as
in a roof-top unit, is driven by the density difference between hot and cold
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water.
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 5.7 Evacuated collectors 137
5.7 Evacuated collectors
Using a selective absorbing surface substantially reduces the radiative
losses from a collector. To obtain yet larger temperature differences, (e.g.
to deliver heat at temperatures around or greater than 100 ○C, for which
there is substantial industrial demand), it is necessary to reduce the
convective losses as well. One way is to use extra layers of glass above a
flat plate. A method that gives better efficiency but is technically more
difficult is to evacuate the space between the plate and its glass cover. This
requires a very strong structural configuration to prevent the large air
pressure forces breaking the glass cover; such a configuration is an outer
tube of circular cross-section. Within this evacuated tube is placed the
absorbing tube.
One type of evacuated collector uses a double tube, as shown in Figure
5.11(a), with the inner tube containing either the potable water to be
heated directly or another heat transfer fluid. The outer tube is made of
glass because it is transparent to solar short wave radiation but not to
thermal, long wave, radiation, and because glass is relatively strong com-
pared with transparent plastic materials. Both tubes are usually made of
glass since glass holds a vacuum better than most other materials. The out
gassing rate from baked Pyrex glass is such that the pressure can be held
less than 0.1N m−2 for 300 years, which is about 1012 times longer than
for a copper tube. The inner tube has a circular cross-section. This helps
the weak glass withstand the tension forces produced in it by the pressure
difference between the fluid inside and the vacuum outside. Typically the
tubes have outer diameter D = 5 cm and inner diameter d = 4 cm.

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138 Solar water heating

Figure 5.11 (a) Evacuated collector.

(b) Circuit analogue of (a).

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 140 Solar water heating

From the 1990s, evacuated tube collectors have been mass-produced in

China (mostly for domestic consumption) and, of a more sophisticated
design using a central heat pipe within a central metal strip collector, in the
UK (mostly for export). The manufacturing process, especially with auto-
matic equipment, is sophisticated. The tubes should have a long lifetime, but
are susceptible to damage from hailstones and vandalism.

5.8 Social and environmental aspects

Solar water heating is an extremely benign and acceptable technology. The
collectors are not obtrusive, especially when integrated into roof design.
There are no harmful emissions in operation and manufacture involves no
especially dangerous materials or techniques. Installation requires the opera-
tives to be trained conventionally in plumbing and construction, and to have
had a short course in the solar-related principles. The technology is now
developed and commercial in most countries, either extensively (e.g. Greece,
Cyprus, Israel and Jordan) or without widespread deployment (e.g. USA,
France and the UK). It works best everywhere in summer and especially in
sunny climates, e.g. the Mediterranean, and where alternatives, such as gas or
electricity, are most expensive e.g. northern Australia. Moreover in every
climate, solar water heaters have pre-heating value. In the UK for

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 Problems 141

instance, a 4 m2 collector is sufficient for nearly 100% supply to a

family of 2–4, with careful use, from mid-April to late-September,
and will pre-heat in other months.
In almost all cases, using solar energy for water heating in
practice replaces brown (fossil) energy that would otherwise be
used for the same purpose. This gives the benefits of improved
sustainability and less green- house gas emissions. For this
reason, some governments partially subsidise household purchase
of solar water heaters, in an attempt to offset the ‘external costs’
of brown energy. The fossil fuel use might be direct (e.g. gas
heating) or indirect (e.g. gas- or coal-fired electricity). Installing a
solar water heating system can be undertaken by a practical
householder, although most people employ a properly trained
tradesperson. The collectors (and for some systems the water
tank also) are usually fixed on roofs of sufficient strength. In most
situations, a ‘conventional’ water heater is available either as a
back-up or as an alternative new installation. Nevertheless, the
payback time against the running cost of a conventional system is
usually 5–10 years, which is substantially less than the life of the
solar system.

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 Problems 141

Solar water heaters, even relatively sophisticated ones, can be

manufactured almost anywhere on a small or medium scale, thus
giving employment. They do not need to be imported and there is
a market, especially among the middle class and members of
‘green’ organisations. The technology is modular and can be
scaled up for commercial uses, such as laundries and hotels. Thus
by far the largest national production of solar water heaters is in
China, where even basic cheap units can provide domestic hot
water, even if only for half the year in the winter climate and high
latitude of China. Many of these units are single glazed or even
unglazed, often with relatively poor thermal connection between
the plate and the tubes, but their price/performance ratio is
acceptable.

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