Design and Development of Automatic Temperature Control System for Solar Water Heater System

Solar Water Heating Systems(SWHS) are a clean and renewable source compared to any other source of water heating. However, affected by the weather, solar energy is of great uncertainty. There is also an uncertainty in the usage and requirement of the hot water in the households. Therefore, in order to ensure a reliable supply of hot water, the system should consist of an auxiliary heat source. Energy input to the system is the sum of solar heat and complementary heat from the auxiliary heat source. The present work deals with the design, development, and testing of a closed loop control system to obtain hot water at any desired temperature and for a required amount of time. This closed-loop system considers the temperature of water in both, a water storage tank and in an exit pipe. The system can be scheduled to work only during the particular time or it can also be made to work irrespective of time. This work also extends to a mobile phone application to monitor and control the complete system to provide the comfortability of remote control. The whole system has been developed with power and cost consciousness. This low power – low-cost solution offers water and power saving with a comfortable lifestyle. It is also an attempt to provide a competitive edge to the solar water heater industry over the electrical water heater industry and thus drive the world towards sustainable energy sources.