This paper presents the development of solar hot water storage tank combined with paraffin pre-heating (PPH) unit. Paraffin is a phase change material (PCM) and is used as a heat storage medium in this PPH unit. The charging or melting process of the PCM in PPH unit happens in the day time. The hot water of temperature about 70 OC which is produced from 2 m2 vacuum tube solar collector is used for charging process. The temperature of PPH unit was increased until the PCM reaches to liquid state. The discharging process of Paraffin PCM will start when the hot water is used during off sunshine hours. The cold water at ambient temperature will be allowed to the storage tank through the PPH unit which automatically initiates the discharging process of paraffin. From the results of performance analysis of PPH unit, it is observed that the efficiencies of PPH unit during charging and discharging processes are 65% and 76% respectively. It can be concluded that the PPH unit can increase the performance of the hot water storage tank and it can also reduce the difference temperature mixing between hot and cold water. The PPH unit can be used to preheat the boiler feed water and for other heat requirement processes in small, medium and large (SML) business sectors. This concept can promisingly reduce the cost of hot water production in the SML industries.
Volume 11 | 05-Special Issue
Pages: 1456-1463