Dynamic simulation and life cycle assessment of a solar water heating system for various commercial and institutional buildings

Khavari, Mahsa; Veysi, Farzad

doi:10.22059/ees.2025.2067610.1532

Dynamic simulation and life cycle assessment of a solar water heating system for various commercial and institutional buildings

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

Mahsa Khavari ¹

Farzad Veysi ²

¹ School of Mechanical Engineering, Iran University of Science and Technology, Tehran, Iran

² Mechanical Engineering Department, Faculty of Engineering, Razi University, Kermanshah, Iran

10.22059/ees.2025.2067610.1532

Abstract

In this paper, the forced circulation solar water heater system (SWHS) with evacuated tube collectors is dynamically simulated for application in various institutions and commercial buildings While most studies rely on simplified or residential consumption profiles, this research employs distinct, real-world hot water consumption profiles (HWCPs) from ASHRAE standards for different building types (elementary school, restaurant, motel, dormitory) to address a critical gap in system optimization for commercial applications. The presented model is validated, and a parametric study is conducted to investigate the effect of HWCP on the optimum values of system design parameters such as the collector mass flow rate, storage tank volume and collector area. Moreover, a life cycle assessment (LCA) is conducted to evaluate the impact of HWCPs on financial performance. The findings indicate that by applying the HWCP, which closely resembles the variation in solar radiation observed on an hourly scale, the highest annual solar fraction of the system would be achieved at lower ratio of tank volume to collector aperture area. On the other hand, due to the low solar radiation from 6 to 10 AM, besides the storage tank's thermal loss overnight, the required auxiliary energy increases for the profiles that allocate a large amount of hot water consumption into these hours. For all different buildings, the highest annual solar fraction is achieved for the collector flow rates of 14 and 15 kg/hm2. Moreover, changing the profiles can increase the annual life cycle saving about 31%.

Keywords

Hot Water Consumption Profile

Life Cycle Assessment

Forced Circulation Solar Water Heater System

Evacuated Tube Collector

Subjects

Energy systems modeling and prediction

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