Abstract
The objective of this work is to analyze the variation in energy performance for each flat plate collector connected in series. In this study, it was assumed that solar water heating system with annual solar fraction of 60% was installed in an office building in Seoul, South Korea. The transient energy performance corresponding to four cases, which are selected using different solar radiation and outdoor air temperature, is studied by analyzing the variation in outlet temperature, solar useful heat gain, and thermal efficiency of each collector. It is observed that the useful heat gain and the collector efficiency decrease continuously, and outlet temperature increases when increasing the number of collector connected in series. The long-term performance is assessed by evaluating the thermal efficiency of each collector for two solar radiation conditions ranging from 780 to $820W/m^2$ and from 380 to $420W/m^2$. It is found that the differences between the intercept and slope of the efficiency curves for first and eighth collectors are 3.68% and 6.74% for solar radiation of $800{\pm}20W/m^2$ and 8.57% and 12.90% for solar radiation of $400{\pm}20W/m^2$, respectively. In addition, it is interesting to note that annual useful heat gain and collector efficiency are reduced with similar rate of about 6.13% when increasing the collector area by connecting the collectors in series.
