You have no items in your shopping cart.
ABSTRACT
Energy is available in two forms, non- renewable (coal, petroleum, natural gas) and renewable (solar, wind, hydro power, biomass). There are two types of solar energy, solar photovoltaic energy and the solar thermal energy. Solar water heating system (SWHS) is one of the most common solar thermal applications. Solar water heating system uses the sun's energy to generate heat, allowing it to provide hot water at temperatures ranging from 40℃ to 80℃for home (showering) or industrial use. Solar water heating is a clean, reliable and cost-effective method of harnessing solar energy unlike electric water heaters which require a huge amount of electricity and can be quite expensive especially in the long run. There are two main categories in a SWHS, the Active and Passive systems. The thermosiphon system is a type of passive solar water heating system, the most regularly used system in the market and it is the most commercially available. A solar water heating system for domestic use has been designed and constructed using locally available materials. This system uses the thermosiphon principle. The materials for the system were carefully selected with consideration to design calculations, market availability and costs of materials. A 15watts solar panel was used to charge batteries connected in both series and parallel to produce 12v of electricity. The charged batteries were then used to power up the heating element, which heats up the water. The system was tested for 10 days, the first 5 days were during the day and the remaining 5 days were at night. It took lesser time to heat up each liter of water during the day because of the heavy flow of sunlight. Although, SWHS has a high starting cost, its renewable nature and durability makes it a reliable source of energy and the government can provide incentives so that the people can take action in having the system.
