Performance evaluation of the Shenandoah Community Solar Recreational Center for the year 1980. Final report

Technical Report · Thu Dec 01 04:00:00 EST 1983

OSTI ID:6771446

Craig, J I; Jeter, S M

The Shenandoah Solar Recreational Center, when completed in early 1977, was the largest building to have most of its heating, air conditioning, and hot water needs met by solar energy. Principal components of the building solar energy system are a 1121 sq-m array of modularized flat plate collectors with 2300 sq-m of aluminum foreground reflectors integrated into a sawtooth wood truss roof, a 15.1 cu-m collector loop buffer tank, a 56.8 cu-m hot water storage tank, two 113.6 cu-m chilled water storage tanks, and a nominal 100 ton single stage absorption chiller. The system is interconnected by means of primary-secondary loops and was designed for simultaneous operation of all subsystems in either the heating or cooling modes. Control is by means of conventional HVAC pneumatic and electric control equipment. Transient thermal simulation studies were used to design the solar energy system. The collector array size was fixed so as to provide a significant fraction of the building annual thermal load, and the hot and chilled water storage volumes and other system functions were sized to maximize economic benefit. On this basis the predicted solar fractions were 95% space heating, 64% space cooling and 50% hot water. The building operation was monitored for a period on one year (February 1980 through February 1981) using a calculator-based data acquisition system with 80 sensors located throughout the building. This report presents an analysis of this data and an evaluation of the building performance over the year. The annual collector efficiency was found to be 19% and the overall annual solar fraction (combined thermal loads met from solar) was determined to be 39%. It is felt that this level of performance for a demonstration system is quite acceptable.

• Research Organization: Georgia Inst. of Tech., Atlanta (USA)
• DOE Contract Number: AS05-79CS30397
• OSTI ID: 6771446
• Report Number(s): DOE/CS/30397-T1; ON: DE84013274
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

14 SOLAR ENERGY
140901* -- Solar Thermal Utilization-- Space Heating & Cooling
140907 -- Solar Thermal Utilization-- Water Heating
ABSORPTION REFRIGERATION CYCLE
AIR CONDITIONING
ANALOG SYSTEMS
BUILDINGS
DATA ACQUISITION SYSTEMS
ENERGY SYSTEMS
EQUIPMENT
FLAT PLATE COLLECTORS
FUNCTIONAL MODELS
HEATING
HEATING SYSTEMS
PERFORMANCE
PUBLIC BUILDINGS
RECREATIONAL AREAS
SIMULATORS
SOLAR AIR CONDITIONING
SOLAR COLLECTORS
SOLAR CONCENTRATORS
SOLAR COOLING SYSTEMS
SOLAR EQUIPMENT
SOLAR HEATING
SOLAR HEATING SYSTEMS
SOLAR REFLECTORS
SOLAR SIMULATORS
SOLAR SPACE HEATING
SOLAR WATER HEATING
SPACE HEATING
WATER HEATING