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U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Final reliability and materials design guidelines for solar domestic hot-water systems

Technical Report ·
DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/5202196· OSTI ID:5202196

This document provides solar-energy-system engineers, designers, and manufacturers with a stand-alone publication containing the concepts and techniques for developing reliable solar domestic hot-water systems. The minimum instrumentation required to determine if a domestic hot-water system is operating properly is discussed, and system start-up and trouble-shooting information is supplied. Detailed sizing, design, or installation information is not provided. This document includes an evaluation of the reliability of six generic solar domestic hot-water systems - drain-down, drain-back, circulating-water, thermosiphon, antifreeze, and air systems. Failure-rate data for these evaluations were obtained from the open literature. Reliability block diagrams are used to analyze collector panels as well as the generic systems. System reliability results are shown as estimated mean time between failures, based on 6-hr/d operation. For other operating times, the duty-cycle concept may be applied similarly. Materials considerations are covered for common components in solar domestic hot-water systems. Information is also presented on glycol-testing and water-scaling predictions.

Research Organization:
Argonne National Lab., IL (USA)
DOE Contract Number:
W-31109-ENG-38
OSTI ID:
5202196
Report Number(s):
ANL/SDP-11; ON: DE82016180
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English