ABSTRACT
This chapter provides energy professionals with a fundamental working knowledge of the scientific and engineering principles of solar collectors and solar systems relevant to both the prefeasibility study and the feasibility study of a solar project. It briefly describes conventional equipment such as heat exchangers, pumps, and piping layout. The chapter also describes the design concepts which are applicable to domestic water heating, swimming pool heating, active space heating, industrial process heat, convective drying systems, and solar cooling systems. Solar thermal systems can be divided into two categories: standalone or solar supplemented. The chapter talks about three major control system components which are sensors, controllers, and actuating devices. A system model is nothing but an assembly of appropriate component modeling equations that are to be solved over time subject to certain forcing functions. The chapter explores three types of mid-level design approaches: the empirical correlation approach, the analytical approach, and the one-day repetitive methods.
