Recently builders have shown considerable interest in combining the features of active and passive solar space heating systems into a hybrid system employing active collection and some form of passive discharge/storage device. Ye examined the performance and economics of a hybrid2 air-based, residential system using 18.5 m of roof-mounted air collectors and a hollow-core slab that discharges di...

A device was developed for direct heating of water by solar radiation in a flow-through system of copper pipes. An adjustable thermostat valve prevents water below the chosen temperature from being withdrawn. The results show that it is possible to eliminate coliform and thermotolerant coliform bacteria from naturally contaminated river water by heating to temperatures of 65 degrees C or above....

With more than a billion people lacking accessible drinking water, there is a critical need to convert nonpotable sources such as seawater to water suitable for human use. However, energy requirements of desalination plants account for half their operating costs, so alternative, lower energy approaches are equally critical. Membrane distillation (MD) has shown potential due to its low operating...

Details of a heat pump assisted solar water heating system, is briefly described. Refrigerants compromising of Fluorocarbons and Chlorofluorocarbons have been generally used as the working fluid. But due to its ozone depletion effect and high Global warming potential, they have been replaced by synthetic refrigerants such as R22, R134 etc. The heat pump utilizing such refrigerants has shown to ...

Seasonal solar thermal energy storage (SSTES) has been investigated widely to solve the mismatch between majority solar thermal energy in summer and majority heating demand in winter. To study the feasibility of SSTES in domestic dwellings in the UK, eight representative cities including Edinburgh, Newcastle, Belfast, Manchester, Birmingham, Cardiff, London and Plymouth have been selected in th...

Solar water heating (SWH) systems are gaining popularity in ASEAN in the midst of increasing number of affluent population in society and environmental concerns from seemingly unchanged reliance on fossil-based fuels. The penetration of these systems and technologies into ASEAN markets is a welcome development; however there is a need for the method of assessment of their thermal performances. ...

The use of solar collectors with coloured absorbers for water heating is an area of particular interest when considering their integration with buildings. By matching the absorber colour with that of the roof or façade of the building, it is possible to achieve an architecturally and visually pleasing result. Despite the potential for the use of coloured absorbers very little work has been unde...

In this work, a multi-objective optimization on novel insulated roof with solar water heating system at low material cost has been carried out through Taguchi based grey relational analysis technique. The novel roofs have concrete, insulating polyurethane, and a channel of water in a metallic pipe tunneling the chromium block. Chromium block is used to conduct more heat to raise the water to re...