| Solar domestic hot water systems have been used throughout the world for decades. Much work has been done to create standards by which various units may be directly compared. In the United States the Solar Rating and Certification Corporation (SRCC) is the main rating body for solar water heating collectors.; Various instrumentation and testing approaches were evaluated to determine feasibility, practicality, and functionality. Results suggested that the current SRCC purge method is not suitable to include ICS units with load-side heat exchangers. A series of short-term tests were conducted in order to obtain necessary data for calibrating the TRNSYS ICS model. A preliminary attempt was made at validating the protocol by comparing to sets of "long-term" data to the calibrated model. However, it became evident that a non-physical parameter in the model, inversion mixing rate, was a limiting factor in the process of validating the protocol. It was not feasible to experimentally determine an appropriate value for this user-input parameter. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)... |
