Recent Researches in Geography, Geology, Energy, Environment and Biomedicine

A Pilot Study of the Building Integrated

Photovoltaic Thermal (BIPVT) Collector for
Commercial Applications in Malaysia
A. Ibrahim, M. Y. Othman, M. H. Ruslan, S. Mat, A. Zaharim and K. Sopian
Abstract Building integrated photovoltaic thermal solar
collector (BIPVT) has been designed to produce both
electricity and hot water and later integrated to building. The
hot water is produced at the useful temperatures for the
applications in Malaysia such as building integrated heating
system and domestic hot water system as well as many
industrial including agricultural and commercial applications
that require low grade heat (>50C). An experiement study of a
BIPVT collector involving a specially designed absorber
collector has been performed for heat transfer enhancement.
The results of performance and efficiency including the
photovoltaic, thermal and also the combination of both are
discussed and analyzed. Results at solar irradiance of 904
W/m2 shows that the combined efficiency of 60 %, electrical
efficiency of 11% at mass flow rates of 0.041 kg/s.
Keywords BIPVT collector, hot water heating system,
thermal and electrical efficiency.

I. INTRODUCTION

ALAYSIA received approximately 4.0 - 8.0 hours of

sunlight every day which lead to almost 4000 - 5000
Wh/m of mean monthly sunlight rays (Sopian et al. 1992).
These amounts of solar energy can be useful for plenty of
purposes by improving its efficiency and cost effectiveness.
There are two types of known solar energy systems that can
generate electricity effectively, which are, thermal and
photovoltaic system. However, priority is given more to
photovoltaic system since that it is easier to manage and can
produce electricity directly from the sun.
Recently, photovoltaic system has been integrated to the
building either on wall or on roof, hence indirectly, reducing
its overall costs of the system. This system is known as
Building Integrated Photovoltaic (BIPV) and can be install for
individual usage or in large scale.
Photovoltaic system that integrated with the building leads
to a temperature rise on the panels, causing the photovoltaic's
efficiency decrease. Under Standard Test Conditions (STC),
Manuscript received May 19, 2011: Revised version received xxx.
A. Ibrahim, M. Y. Othman, M. H. Ruslan, S. Mat, A. Zaharim and
K.Sopian is with the Solar Energy Research Institute, Universiti Kebangsaan
Malaysia, 43600 Bangi Selangor, MALAYSIA.
(E-mail: adnan@vlsi.eng.ukm.my*, myho@ukm.my, hafidz@ukm.my,
sohif@ukm.my, azami.zaharim@gmail.com and ksopian@vlsi.eng.ukm.my)

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operation's temperature was fixed on 25C. It is noted that the

building integrated photovoltaic system used in areas such as
Malaysia accumulate up to 60 C - 80 C. This temperature
raises and causes the module to lower it efficiency level.
Hence, it is crucial to reduce the operational temperature in
order to get optimum efficiency throughout the system. The
researches in this photovoltaic/thermal have been increased
recently. Generally, photovoltaic/thermal collectors can be
divided into two types:
Solar water heating and photovoltaic cells combination.
Solar air heating and photovoltaic cells combination.
Both types of these collectors can be identify from the
medium type used as a heat transferring fluid, which is, either
water or air. Choosing the collector is much depending on the
type of system and usage suitability. Usage of solar collector is
determined based on the collector overall efficiency and output
temperature produced. Prior factors that determine thermal
efficiency is that heat transferring process between absorption
plate and fluid flow medium inside the collector. The most
important parameter in this heat transferring process is the
absorber's surface area that exposed to the medium and the
coefficient of the heat transfer for the involving medium.
While the electricity efficiency of the photovoltaic cell was
influenced by the temperature of the cells itself, electricity
efficiency will decrease as the heat increasing. This means that
optimum result will only achieved as long the system operates
in a lowest temperature. Thermal efficiency will also rise if the
PVT collector is allowed to operate at a lower temperature.
However, optimization needs to be performing to ensure the
system operating in a suitable efficiency with the required
output temperature from the collector for other purposes can
be determined.
Solar energy technology can be broadly classified into a
hybrid systems; photovoltaic energy system and thermal
energy system. Hybrid photovoltaic thermal system inherited
all the advantages of PV technology. The advantages such as
works on noiseless environment; do not produce any unwanted
waste such as radioactive materials etc, highly credibility
system with life span expectation is between 20 to 30 years
and very low maintenance system are considered an attractive
features for PVT system (Ibrahim et al. 2009a).

Recent Researches in Geography, Geology, Energy, Environment and Biomedicine

Numerous researches and development programs have been

carried out to improve the applications of solar energy
systems. Several design of photovoltaic thermal solar water
based collector has been proposed in the past. Among the first
was Martin (Wolf 1976) who analysed the performance of
combining the heating and photovoltaic power systems for
residences and conclude that the system was technically
feasible and cost effective. Beside Wolf, research on PV/T
water based collector bas been conducted by Florschuetz,
extending the Hottel-Whillier model to the analysed the
combination of PV/T flat plate collectors with the traditional
hot water system and PV panel to minimize the usage of the
installation area. It is proven that by combining the system, the
installation area produced more energy per unit surface area
than a separate system (Florschuetz 1979).
Zondag examined the various concepts of combined PVthermal collector technologies and conclude that the design of
the channel below the transparent PV with PV-on-sheet and
tubes design gives the best efficiency overall (Zondag 2008).
Bergene performed theoretical examination of a flat plate solar
collector model that integrated with solar cells, concludes that
the system combination of both produced approximately about
60-80% efficiency (Bergene et al. 1995).
Performance simulation of PV/T collectors with seven new
design configurations of absorber collectors design has been
studied by (Ibrahim et al. 2009b) and conclude that the best
design configuration is the spiral flow design with thermal
efficiency of 50.12% and cell efficiency of 11.98%.
The aim of this paper is to develop and test the efficiency of
the BIPVT collector for the building integrated systems for
Malaysia applications where the system required to operate
with an output temperature between 40C to 60C which later
suitable range for domestic usage.
II. BIPVT COLLECTOR EXPERIMENTAL SETUP
The outdoor experiment on the BIPVT collector has been
performed at Solar Energy Research Institute Solar Park
(SERI), Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia to determine the
ability (efficiency) of the collector to convert the sunlight to
heat and electrical energy. The collector, as shown in Fig. 1 is
made of a rectangular hollow tube of stainless steel material
with dimension of 12.712.7 mm.

The collector, which assembled using a TIG welding

method, consist of a single unilateral channel for the water to
flow in and out underneath the standard photovoltaic panel
with the size of 1 m high x 0.65 m length and 0.3 m thickness.
Thermal insulator as in Fig. 2, is packed underneath the
collector to prevent heat from escaping further and provides
more uniform temperatures throughout the system.

Fig. 2: The assembly view of the BIPVT collector

A standard photovoltaic panel represented as a flat plate
single glazing sheet of polycrystalline silicon with single
glazing sheet has been laminated and bonded with a high
temperature silicone adhesive and sealant. Once sealed and
watertight, the collector is attached to the bottom side of
photovoltaic panel and encapsulated in a Polyvinyl resin and
formed a complete BIPVT collector system with the size of
815 628 x 30 mm.
As shown in Fig. 3, ambient temperature and other
temperatures are measured using K-type thermocouple. Solar
radiations from the sun are measured by Eppley pyranometer
for intensity. Mass flow rates for the collector is set from
0.034, 0.039 and 0.041 kg sec1 and connected direct to data
acquisition system which later link to the computer. The full
schematic diagram of data acquisition system comprised of the
BIPVT collector, water storage tank with auxiliary heater, data
acquisition system and converter/inverter that link to the load.
The grid connected system is an additional to the system.

A
Water
out
Thermal
Storage
Tank

PV/T water
collector

Converter/
Inverter

Grid
connected

Load
Water
Storage
tank

Auxiliary
Heater

Pyranometer
Thermocouples
DC Current
transducer
DC Voltage
transducer
Flowmeter
Thermostat

DATA
ACQUISITION
SYSTEM

Data Logger
24ch

Fig. 3: The Schematic diagram of BIPVT system

Fig. 1: The design of absorber collectors in parallel tested
outdoor for BIPVT collector applications

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Recent Researches in Geography, Geology, Energy, Environment and Biomedicine

III. BIPVT COLLECTOR SYSTEM EFFICIENCY

The efficiency of thermal and cell for the BIPVT collector
is evaluated based on the Hottel and Whillier equations (Hottel
H. C et al. 1958). In these equations the mass flow rates can
be calculating based on:
.

m = AVav
.

where: m = The mass flow rate, = the density of the

medium drain input area and Vav = the water velocity.
The thermal efficiency of the collector is expressed as:
(Vokas et al. 2006)

th = FR ( ) PV FRU L

Ti Ta
GT

where: FR = heat removal efficiency factor, PV

transmittance-absorptance of the collector, UL
collector heat loss coefficient (W/m2 C), Ti =
temperature (C), Ta = ambient temperature (C)
solar radiation at NOCT
For temperature-dependent electrical efficiency
module,

( e )

Fig. 4: The temperature distribution of the BIPVT collector

taken at mass flow rate of 0.041 kg/s.
= average
= overall
fluid inlet
and GT =

As shown in Fig. 5, the efficiency and the irradiance of the

collector versus time. The result shows that the system is time
dependence based on solar irradiance and noted that the peak
of solar irradiance on that particular day was at 13:30 at 904
W/m2. The temperatures of the collector remain unchanged
even though the solar irradiance recorded to fall and this
shows that the BIPVT collector has the capability of retain the
heat.

of the PV

(Tiwari et al. 2006), the expression given is:

e = r [1 (Tc Tr )]
where: e = electrical efficiency, r = reference efficiency of
PV panel (r = 0.12), = temperature coefficient (C
0.0045C-1), Tc = temperature of the solar cells (C), and Tr =
the reference temperature.
The overall efficiencies (combined efficiency) pvt is used to
evaluate the overall performance of the system:

pvt = th+e

IV. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

The experiment on BIPVT collector system has been
performed on 30 December 2009. Fig. 4 shows the
temperature distribution for the BIPVT collector taken at mass
flow rate of 0.039 kg/s and data were collected and gathered
from 08:00 to 17:00 respectively. It is noted that from the
experiment shows that the water inlet temperature reaches
53.2C, plate temperature of 70.3C and ambient temperature
at 37C.

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141

Fig. 5: Efficiency and irradiance versus time for BIPVT

collector
Fig. 6 show the dependence of electrical, thermal and
combined BIPVT collector efficiency on the mass flow rate
respectively.

Recent Researches in Geography, Geology, Energy, Environment and Biomedicine

[6]

Sopian, K. and M. Y. Othman (1992). "Estimates of monthly average

daily global solar radiation in Malaysia." Renewable Energy 2(3): 319325.
[7] Tiwari, A. and M. S. Sodha (2006). "Performance evaluation of hybrid
PV/thermal water/air heating system: A parametric study." Renewable
Energy 31(15): 2460-2474.
[8] Vokas, G., N. Christandonis and F. Skittides (2006). "Hybrid
photovoltaic-thermal systems for domestic heating and cooling--A
theoretical approach." Solar Energy 80(5): 607-615.
[9] Wolf, M. (1976). "Performance analyses of combined heating and
photovoltaic power systems for residences." Energy Conversion 16(1-2):
79-90.
[10] Zondag, H. A. (2008). "Flat-plate PV-Thermal collectors and systems: A
review." Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 12(4): 891-959.

Fig. 6: Efficiency of photovoltaic (PV), thermal (T) and

combined versus mass flow rate
V. CONCLUSIONS
Results indicates that the electrical and thermal production
of a BIPVT collector increases with decreasing temperature of
ambient. The collector is considered to be a closed loop
system, it is worthwhile to deliver the hot water out of the
collector for other purposes and cold water should be kept as
low as possible. A trade-off between increasing of electricity
production and producing hot water is thus necessary. The
experiment proved that the BIPVT system has a potential as an
alternative method of energy production for commercial
applications in Malaysia.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The authors would like to express their gratitude to
Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia and the Ministry of Science,
Technology and Innovation Malaysia for sponsoring the work
under project Sciencefund 03-01-02-SF0039.
REFERENCES
[1]
[2]
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[5]

Bergene, T. and O. M. Lovvik (1995). "Model calculations on a flat-plate

solar heat collector with integrated solar cells." Solar Energy 55(6): 453462.
Florschuetz, L. W. (1979). "Extension of the Hottel-Whillier model to
the analysis of combined photovoltaic/thermal flat plate collectors." Solar
Energy 22(4): 361-366.
Hottel H. C and A. Whillier (1958). "Evaluation of Flat-Plate Solar
Collector Performance." Trans. of the Conference on Use of Solar
Energy 2: 74.
Ibrahim, A., G. L. Jin, R. Daghigh, M. H. M. Salleh, M. Y. Othman, M.
H. Ruslan, S. Mat and K. Sopian (2009a). "Hybrid photovoltaic thermal
(PV/T) air and water based solar collectors suitable for building
integrated applications." American Journal of Environmental Sciences
5(5): 618-624.
Ibrahim, A., M. Y. Othman, M. H. Ruslan, M. A. Alghoul, M. Yahya, A.
Zaharim and K. Sopian (2009b). "Performance of photovoltaic thermal
collector (PVT) with different absorbers design." WSEAS Transactions
on Environment and Development 5(3): 321-330.

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