Use of solar hot water in Residential applications:
We generally use electric geysers/ gas heaters to heat the water for bathing; but as our life style is changing this trend is changing drastically and people are accepting Solar Water Heating as practical & economical mean as payback time is very fast between 2 to 3 years only.
Care to be taken during selection of Capacity of Solar water heater at time of New Purchase:
Capacity of solar water heaters is in Liters Per Day (LPD). If you install 300 LPD Solar water heater system, you get 300 Liters Hot Water on per day basis. As water is heated by sun rays, its not possible to heat water instantly. Thumb rule is if one is using 300 LPD Solar water heater in his premises, 300 Liters water is heated during whole day and its stored overnight in solar hot water insulated tank and one can use this stored water next day morning for bathing or other applications.
Utmost care should be taken to select the Capacity of Solar water heater at the time of New Purchase. Capacity of Solar water heater can be chosen depending on the usage of hot water per day by family members in bathing, shaving, Cleaning and cooking usages. Climatic conditions of your region in winter and monsoon season also should be taken into consideration during selection of capacity of solar water heater. The capacity of domestic/ apartment use solar water heating system can be selected based on the sunlight intensity in your area and humidity pattern especially in winter and monsoon, number of members in family and total number of bathrooms or hot water points and diameter of hot water pipeline installed in your premises (home).
For example, in a bungalow if number of bathrooms are 6 and number of family members are 5 using hot water single time in morning, then capacity of solar water heater suggested is minimum 300 Liters Per Day as heat loss in the CPVC hot water line will be more as line length of hot water pipe is more due to more number of bathrooms. If out of 5 members, 3 members are using hot water during evening also, then total number of members using hot water per day will be 5+3= 8 members, hence suggested capacity of solar water heater will be 500 Liters Per Day.
Another Example, in a house if number of bathrooms are 2 and number of family members are 5 using hot water single time in morning, then capacity of solar water heater suggested is minimum 200 Liters Per Day as heat loss in the CPVC hot water line will be less as line length of hot water pipe is less as there are only 2 bathrooms in which hot water output line is given.
Commercial applications:
Commercial applications mostly use conventional heating systems based on electricity/coal/furnace oil/wood. Due to constant increase in cost of electricity and conventional fuels, Solar water heater can be best solution for hot water requirement of industries as payback time would be average 1.5 years. If high temperature water in needed in industrial application, solar water heater can be used to heat water at pre-heating stage. For example, once water is heated by solar water heater upto 40 to 70 Deg. C depending on atmospheric conditions, then electric/coal/furnace oil/gas can be used to provide boosting to increase temperature of hot water and hence Industry can save heavily as solar water heater takes temperature of hot water to a pre-heating stage.
Following are the broad applications of solar water heater in Industries:
- Hotels: Bathing, kitchen, washing, laundry applications
- Dairies: Ghee (clarified butter) production, cleaning and sterilizing, pasteurization
- Textiles: Processing, bleaching, boiling, printing, dyeing, curing, ageing and finishing applications.
- Edible Oil and Refining: Boiler feed applications
- Breweries: Bottle washing, wort preparation, boiler feed applications
- Distilleries: Bottle washing, boiler feed applications
- Bulk Drugs Manufacturing Units: Fermentation of mixes, boiler feed applications
- Electroplating / Galvanizing Units: Heating of plating baths, cleaning, degreasing applications
- Paint Shops: cleaning, degreasing applications
- Pulp and Paper Industries: Boiler feed applications, soaking of pulp
- Soft Drink Bottling Plants: cleaning of bottles & vessels, boiler feed application