The Renewable Energy status report stated that 48% of total energy is being consumed in Heating and Cooling sector. The energy in this sector is mostly provided by using fossil fuel and it is generating about 39% of carbon dioxide green house gas. It is necessity of time to develop new energy storage materials integrated system to utilize abundant renewable energy such as solar energy to fulfill energy requirement in this particular sector. In current study, newly designed combining solar thermal water and space heating system with phase change material (PCM) has been presented. The new integrated configuration of solar thermal water and space heating system consist of solar thermal collector, insulated energy storage tank, solar energy operated pump, space heating chambers and logic based integrated circuit for efficient operation of system. This is the first time we have integrated PCM storage tank in parallel to water storage tank and space heating chamber for long term efficient use of Solar energy. The heat energy storage and releasing characteristic of synthesized PCM Stearic acid/Palmitic acid and commercial available PCM such as wax, Puretemp68 were tested in new fabricated solar thermal water heating system. The experiments for charging and discharging of PCM were conducted in Mesa, Arizona (33.4152° N, 111.8315° W) summer and winter weather condition. The heat storage, heat releasing, stability of compound and efficiency of different phase change materials with respect to water and space heating were studied. It was observed that synthesized PCM Stearic acid/Palmitic acid has shown efficient charging and discharging behavior. The current solar thermal water heating setup integrated with PCM has shown efficient performance in cold climate, low heat losses during night and efficient solar harvesting capability.<br/><br/>

Development, integration and real environment investigation of off-grid solar thermal water and space heating system using phase-change materials

2019 Fall National Meeting

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.