Solar Water Heater Design
Application and Region Dependency

This page will portray the aspects of solar water heater design as derived from the application and type of solar hot water heaters

Solar Water Heaters

Heating water amounts to a lion share of the energy use at homes. Across the USA, approximately 20% of energy use in residential buildings is for water heating. Solar water heaters use sun radiation in lieu of electricity, gas or oil to heat water and can save 80% of the energy bills once installed. Only 3% of US homes are equipped with solar water heaters, compared to Spain or Israel where the majority of residential buildings have installed solar water heating systems. In Israel, it is assumed that solar water heating has replaced 3% of the national energy consumption.

Application Areas of Solar Water Heating Systems

The 2 main applications are:

1. solar hot water heaters for indoor uses, for the bathroom, kitchen and the laundry machine
2. swimming pool hot water heater

Types of Solar Water Heaters

Low-temperature systems are unglazed and operate at up to 18 degrees Fahrenheit (10 degrees Celsius) above ambient temperature, and most swimming pool solar heaters use unglazed cheaper solar collectors.

There are 4 main types of solar water heater design for indoor applications

• Evacuated Tubes design mostly suited to low sun radiation intensity regions
• Active direct systems design for medium or high intensity sun radiation regions; the liquid used from the collector to the tank is water
• Active indirect systems design for medium or high intensity sun radiation systems; the liquid from the collector to the tank is a coolant, usually glycol
• passive solar hot water heater design; the simplest and cheapest system, not like the active system it doesn’t use a pump. It is a direct system, the collector to tank loop runs water, the collector must be installed above the tank