application fields of the solar thermal

advantages of a solar plant

• Solar plants can support hot water preparation in every household. Different from the heating, the need for warm water is very constant over the year. The principal of getting warm water from the sun is easy: The sun’s energy is collected with

  a simple method: The full vacuum tube collectors. The collectors can catch the sunlight even during the winter.
  
  What has to be kept in mind during the planning?
  When planning a system for domestic water heating, the hot water demand must be estimated. If there is no ability in the household to read the hot water demand from a measuring instrument, it can be assumed a demand of 30 l – 50 l per person and day. The demand of washing machines and dish washers should also be taken into account, because they can be operated with hot water from the solar system to reduce the electricity consumption as well. When employing the 100° C tube, 30 tubes can always be assumed. Thus the solar coverage is higher and there is no risk of overheating.
  
  Alongside the hot water demand, it is furthermore essential to consider the storage type and size, because it plays an important role for the efficiency of the system. The average size of solar hot water storage tanks amounts 300 l – 600 l. Most suitable is a buffer storage with fresh water station. Hygienic storage tanks are also reasonable, because they heat the water in the hygienic continuous flow mode. Drinking water tanks are not to recommend to prevent the growth of legionella. Buffer storages are the cleanest and most effective solution for a combination of domestic water heating and heating support.
  
  What will be saved at the end?
  With a high-efficient full vacuum tube collector system, it is possible to prepare hot water in the transitional period as well as in winter. So a major part of the heating costs for the hot water preparation can be saved.

• Local heating networks offer opportunities of transporting decentralised energy to the consumer in residential areas, communities or bioenergy villages. They have a high efficiency with a high level of regional value-added.

  Heating systems are operating with biomass frequently, which means staff has to work at any time. And now there is the completely supply of bioenergy villages with solar thermal heat while the majority of local heating systems were operating with biogas and biomass thermal power stations. The size of the seasonal heat storage systems plays an essential role. The size of heat storage systems used for local heating concepts varies from 1.000 m³ – 12.000 m³.

  
  What are the advantages?

  • supply of housing areas and large heat consumers
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  • up to 100 % solar heat supply
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  • large storages with low heat loss
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  • realization of a non-achieved profitability up to now
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  • energy self-sufficiency, security of supply and renewability
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  • climate friendly, ecological technology
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  • combination with biomass heating systems possible
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  • energy costs approx. 80,- €

• The use of solar energy in private houses has almost become a standard. Solar process heat is essentially needed in many industrial sectors. Despite especially large energy consumers like agriculture and industry, that could make contribution to the energy transition restrain themselves.

  Finally, the industry is responsible for approx. 70 % of the total energy consumption. The industrial sector is an attractive application area due to the proceeded low and medium temperature processes (smaller 190 ° C). A large part of the final energy for processes can be replaced by using solar thermal systems. Process heat is applicated in sectors with high heat requirement, e.g. breweries, industrial-scale-laundries, paint shops and agriculture. It is required for various production processes: drying, hardening, washing, rinsing, process heat sterilizing. Process heat can also be used for sea water desalination and for cooling together with a refrigeration machine.
  
  What has to be kept in mind during the planning?
  Depending on the chosen application, there are different temperatures needed and different system dimensioning assumed. Due to that, systems for solar process heat are much larger than heating supporting systems, there is much more space needed. Processes in low and medium temperature segment are advantageous, because the efficiency factor decreases at increasing temperatures. Large-scale storage systems are used to avoid faults while production processes through daily or seasonal fluctuations. Obviously a conventional heating system should be maintained to have further reserve capacity besides the storage tank. Syncing heat requirement and solar supply are optimum conditions. This is often applicable to solar cooling or air conditioning as well as applications with daily operation.
  

• The heating support is one of the most popular application areas of the solarthermics in private households as well as in the industry. Heating support is frequently applicated in combination with domestic water heating. Pure heating support is an expectional case.

  
  What has to be kept in mind during the planning?
  If you want to invest in a solar thermal system you should know the exact heat demand. This may be done through the average annual demand of fuels like oil, wood and pellets or can be calculated through the final billing of the energy supplier. Compared to solar systems for domestic water heating, heating supporting systems need larger installation areas. Pure heating support requires on average approx. 4 m² installed collector area (20-30 tubes), depending on the above-mentioned factors. With such system you can achieve a solar coverage of approx. 25 % – 30 %. These systems can be combined and completed with all other fuels. The heat source changes only when the demand is not covered by the collectors. The average storage tank volume for a solar thermal heating system does not differ significantly to the usual storage tank volume for heating water with approx. 600 l – 800 l. Per m², a 100 l storage tank volume is needed. But the storage tank systems differ in their concstruction, because storages for solar systems have to contain heat exchanger for the solar circuit. Combined solar systems need combi storage tanks with two heat exchangers, one for the heating circuit and one for the domestic water.
  
  What is going to be saved?
  On average, solar thermal systems can save approx. one third of the heating demand annually. Especially in the transitional period, you can benefit from solar heating, because the conventional heating system is not needed.
  
  Is a 100% heating support possible?
  If you want to heat without any additional fuel the solar system needs to be dimensioned much larger. Per m² living area 1m² collector area is needed. Furthermore, when dimensioning the storage tank volume it should be minded that the heat needs to be stored over seasons. Another important fact is the insulation, which should be at least KfW 40 building standard. Otherwise the complete heating of an old building would be impossible, because the heat loss would be too high due to the missing insulation.

• The sun's rays that hit the earth can be converted into heat by a solar thermal system. This heat is mostly used for water heating or heating support. But it is also optimal for private pools and public swimming pools.

  A solar pool heating can extend the bathing season for outdoor pools. The heat demand with small pools can be covered. For a public swimming pool, which is used the entire year, the solar energy is not enough to keep the wanted temperature. Especially during the season change and wintertime, is an additional heating source needed. Nevertheless, the heating costs can be reduced enormously with a solar pool heating. You are interested in a solar pool heating system? You can request a free counseling with us!
  
  Requests and space demands of pool heating:
  A solar pool heating has only a few requirements. In contrary to the thermal solar plants for warm water heating and heating support, the solar pool heating system has to reach a temperature of about 25°C. If you use the collectors only for the pool heating, besides two pumps and a heat exchanger, you need nothing more.
  
  A pump is responsible for the water circulation from the collector to the heat exchanger and back. The other pump pumps the pool water to the heat exchanger. Since the pool serves as a warm water storage tank, it eliminates the purchase of an extra normal storage tank.
  
  The bigger the pool, the more collector surface you need. As a guideline for the size of the collector, it can be said that per gross m² of the pool surface 0.5 to 0.8 m² of gross collector area are needed. The collectors can be used as a protection fence, installed on a flat roof, pitched roof or mounted on the facade.