Automating a solar water heating system

Year 2017, Volume: 1 Issue: 2, 56 - 64, 05.11.2017

Wassima Ait Ahmed , Mohammed Aggour Fayçal Bennani

https://doi.org/10.30521/jes.330414

Cited By: 1

Abstract

The use of solar thermal energy is getting more
attention throughout the past few years, providing alternative yet efficient
solutions to the energy production challenge across the globe.
Solar thermal collectors are one of the most
diversified types of the solar collectors’ family, starting from one simple
principle: heating water from the sun. The technology used in this area is
simple yet reliable. The collector used in the project is a photo thermal converter; the solar
radiations are captured by the solar cells, heating the water inside a serpentine and transferring it to the reservoir.
The photo thermal collector is illuminated by a
laboratory lamp of 277, 42 Watts (extracted power) and heats the water up to
39°C in 15 minutes.
The aim of this work is to study different theories to realize a
monitoring and a control approach to uphold the temperature of the reservoir in
a specified range and establish better productivity of the system. Therefore,
we added two Arduino-based devices, one to monitor temperature, and the other
to control the water pump speed based on the values detected from the
temperature sensors. The temperature of the water in the reservoir is
maintained in the desired range (30°C to 40°C). The communication between the
computer and the system in a total is done by serial data transfer.

Keywords

Solar energy, Temperature control, Electronic devices, Arduino boards, Renewable energy, Photo-thermal

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