Parametric Analysis of Solar Water Heating Systems for Buildings in Lebanon

Solar water heater (SWH) for Domestic Hot Water production can reduce annual operating costs using "free energy" from the sun in Lebanon. Solar water heating system is transient in nature and its performance depends on dynamic parameters. Transient system simulations using SimSol and Solo softwares are done in order to assess the performance of the solar water heater for different weather files and component parameters. In a first step, the analysis was based on a definition of Domestic Hot Water demands performed by the scientific and technical center for building . Afterwards, 16 single component parametric variations for Centralized and Individual SWH are performed and analyzed. The results showed that the different parameters may increase the solar gain energy and reduce the heat losses through the system components. Impacts of these parameters are quantified for weather conditions in Lebanon. A simplified sizing procedure for solar domestic hot water systems is also presented. Finally, Requirements for the Chapter Hot Water of the Lebanese Energy Building Code are proposed based on the simulation results as a minimum energy efficiency measures which demonstrate the purpose of this endeavor.