Comparison of Thermal Performance of Different Solar Collector

Technologies for Solar District Heating Systems Based on Solar

Keymark Certificates and SCEnOCalc
Stephan Fischer
Institute for Thermodynamics and Thermal Engineering (ITW)
Research and Testing Centre for Thermal Solar Systems (TZS)
University of Stuttgart
Pfaffenwaldring 6, 70550 Stuttgart
E-Mail: fischer@itw.uni-stuttgart.de
Tel. +49-711-685-63231, Fax +49-711-685-63503
www.itw.uni-stuttgart.de

Introduction The freeware tool SCEnOCalc (Solar Collector Energy Output Calculator) which has been developed within the European project QAiST
(Quality Assurance in Solar Thermal Heating and Cooling Technology) is a reliable and easy to use tool to assess and to compare the thermal
performance of solar collectors. Using SCEnOCalc together with the results published in Solar Keymark certificates the method has three major
advantages compared to other calculation methods:
1.

High transparency due to the fact that the collector performance test results as well as the validated software tool are publically available
(www.estif.org/solarkeymarknew/)

2.

Only reliable thermal performance test results which were determined by accredited test laboratories are listed in the Solar Keymark
Certificates

3.

The quality of the produced collectors is controlled by periodically conducted factory inspections of the production sites and physical
inspections of the certified solar collector

SCEnOCalc is used in this contribution to compare 8 different collector technologies based on the yearly collector gain per m of gross collector area.

Collector technologies
The thermal performance of the following collector technologies have been evaluated.
Collector data sheets are available under www.estif.org/solarkeymarknew/
No.
Collector technology
Solar Keymark register no.
#1
Evacuated flat plate collector
011-7S1890 F
#2
High end evacuated tubular collector with CPC reflector
011-7S2031 R
#3
Standard evacuated tubular collector with CPC reflector
011-7S768 R
#4
Standard evacuated tubular collector with heat pipe
011-7S2122 R
#5
Standard evacuated tubular collector with direct flow
011-7S060 R
#6
Large scale flat plate collector with double glazing
011-7S1520 F
#7
Standard flat plate collector with high selective coating
011-7S052 F
#8
Standard flat plate collector with selective coating
011-7S1145

DuringtheperformancetestundertheSolarKeymark
Scheme usually water is used as heat transfer fluid.
Byuseofantifreezetheyearlycollectorgainmaybe
smallerthanthecollectorgainpredictedforwater.

Results for different mean fluid temperatures and locations

1100

Location: Stockholm(Sweden)
Collectororientation:south,30 tilted
hemisphericalirradiation:1 158kWh/(m2yr.)

900
800
700
600
500
400
300
200
100

1100

1000

yearlycollectorgainpermgrossarea
kWh/(m2 yr.)

1000

yearlycollectorgainpermgrossarea
kWh/(m2 yr.)

yeaerlycollectorgainpermgrossarea
[kWh/(m2 yr.)]

1100

Location: Wrzburg(Germany)
Collectororientation:south,30 tilted
hemisphericalirradiation:1 242kWh/(m2yr.)

900
800
700
600
500
400
300
200
100

40

50

60

#1

#2

70
80
90
meanfluidtemperature[C]
#3

#4

#5

#6

#7

100

110

900
800
700
600
500
400
300

Location: Athens(Greece)
Collectororientation:south,30 tilted
hemisphericalirradiation:1 767kWh/(m2yr.)

200
100
0

40

50

#8

60

#1

Figure 1: Collector gains for Stockholm

1000

#2

70
80
meanfluidtemperatureC
#3

#4

#5

#6

90

#7

100

110

40

#8

50
#1

Figure 2: Collector gains for Wrzburg

60
#2

70
80
meanfluidtemperatureC
#3

#4

#5

#6

#7

90

100

110

#8

Figure 3: Collector gains for Athens

Results for different tilt and azimuth angles

700
Location: Wrzburg(Germany)
Collectororientation:south
Globalirradiation:1 095kWh/(m2yr.)
meanfluidtemerature:100C

600

yearlycollectorgainpermgrossarea
kWh/(m2 yr.)

yearlycollectorgainpermgrossarea
kWh/(m2 yr.)

700

500
400
300
200
100

Location: Wrzburg(Germany)
Collectortilt:30
Globalirradiation:1 095kWh/(m2yr.)
Meanfluidtemperature:100C

600
500
400
300
200
100
0

0
0

10

20
#1

#2

30
#3

40
50
tiltangle
#4

#5

#6

60
#7

70

80

90

#8

Figure 4: Collector gains for different tilt angles

90

75

60

45

30

15
0
15
azimuthangle

#1

#2

#3

#4

#5

#6

30
#7

45

60

75

90

#8

Figure 5: Collector gains for different azimuth angles

Conclusions
Using certified collector performance data and the software tool SCEnOCalc gives at present the best available guarantee for a reliable assessment
and comparison of the thermal performance for solar thermal collectors.
Performance figures based on collector gross area are the most appropriate way to compare the performance of solar thermal collectors.
Evacuated tubular collectors with CPC reflectors and evacuated flat plate collectors can deliver up to 25 to 80 % (depending on the location, see Figure
1 to 3) higher collector gains per m gross area than high end flat plate collectors at mean fluid temperatures of 100 C.
Evacuated tubular collectors without reflector do not have higher collector gains than flat plate collectors due to a small ratio of aperture to gross area.
The higher the yearly energy gain of a collector the lower is the decrease (in %) of the yearly energy gain in case it is not oriented south with the
optimum tilt angle, e.g. facing east or west or at high tilt angles.