Energy Analysis of Roof Integrated Solar Collector for Domestic Heating & Cooling Under Local Conditions of Pakistan

Abstract

Household utilization of energy represents the 46% of Pakistan total energy. This situation requires that new energy model & alternates of energy should be developed for the household utilization of energy. Solar Energy is one of the best available options for this problem. Many designs of solar roof have been developed in the last half century to utilize solar energy from the roof. The previous designs are feasible but their design is complex and their performance. A model of Roof Integrated Solar collector is designed & fabricated. The dimensions of collector are 5 feet long, 4 feet wide & 0.5 feet height. Experimental readings are taken at various times of the day. The effect of orientation is also studied experimentally. Economic analysis is performed for different scheme of solar collector using linear economical approach.  Energy Analysis shows that Roof Integrated Solar collector has a very healthy potential for solar thermal application as it has almost 37 % efficiency. The major loss occurs in solar collector. The life cost analysis shows that the cost of Roof Integrated Solar collector is very economical as compared to electric water heater, gas water heater or solar thermal water heater. Energy distribution analysis shows that 37% energy is transferred to water, 32 % is reflected back & 22 % is transferred to the atmosphere through collector walls & base & the rest of 9% is absorbed by the collector surface.