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

Solar energy system performance evaluation

Technical Report ·
DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/5597402· OSTI ID:5597402

The Stewart-Teele-Mitchell site is a single-family residence in Malta, New York. The home has approximately 1900 square feet of conditioned space. Solar energy is used for space heating the home and preheating domestic hot water (DHW). The solar energy system has an array of flat-plate collectors with a gross area of 432 square feet. The array faces south at an angle of 45 degrees to the horizontal. A glycol/water solution is the transfer medium that delivers solar energy from the collector array to a heat exchanger. Water is then used as the transfer medium that delivers solar energy from the heat exchanger to storage, and to the space heating and DHW loads. Solar energy is stored in the basement in a 1000-gallon insulated tank. Preheated city water is stored in a 75-gallon preheat tank and supplied, on demand, to a conventional 40-gallon DHW tank. When solar energy is insufficient to satisfy the space heating load, an oil-fired furnace provides auxilary energy for space heating. Similarly, an electrical heating element in the DHW tank provides auxiliary energy for water heating. (MOW)

Research Organization:
International Business Machines Corp., Gaithersburg, MD (USA)
DOE Contract Number:
EG-77-C-01-4049
OSTI ID:
5597402
Report Number(s):
SOLAR/1018-79/14
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English