| Tweet | 
 
  
    Custom Search
   
 | 
      
         | 
 
       | 
		||
        ![]() MIL-HDBK-1003/13A 
3.0 DESIGN METHODS. 
There are three steps in the design of a solar system: determination of solar 
energy available per unit area of collector, determination of heating load, 
and sizing the collector for cost effectiveness.  A series of worksheets 
(Section 3.13) has been prepared to facilitate the design process for liquid 
systems; see Section 3.22 for air systems.  The worksheets should be 
duplicated as needed.  The design method presented here is based 
substantially on the systems analysis done at the University of Wisconsin, 
Madison (Beckman, Klein, and Duffie, 1977; Klein, Beckman, and Duffie, 1976). 
The complex interaction between the components of a solar heating system has 
been reduced by means of computer simulation to a single parametric chart of 
FIAC versus FLAC with f as parameter (Figure 3-1), where FI is a 
function of energy absorbed by the solar collector divided by building 
heating load, AC is collector area, FL is a function of solar collector 
heat losses divided by building heating load, and f is the fraction of 
building heating load supplied by solar heating.  The requirement for advance 
knowledge of system temperatures has been eliminated by use of these heat 
balance ratios. 
The method has been checked with computer simulations for the climates of 
Madison, Wisconsin; Blue Hill, Massachusetts; Charleston, South Carolina; 
Albuquerque, New Mexico; and Boulder, Colorado.  The standard errors of the 
differences _ between the computer simulated and the values estimated by this 
_ method of f for the five locations were no greater than 0.014 (1.4% error); 
f is the yearly average of the monthly f.  Eight years of data were used for 
the Madison, Wisconsin, case.  This method then appears to be sufficiently 
accurate for most applications and is a method widely used in the industry. 
It is the basis for an interactive computer program FCHART (Durlak, 1979b), 
hand calculator programs (Durlak, 1979b), and HUD reports (U.S. Dept HUD, 
1977). 
3.1 Job summary - Worksheet A.  Worksheet A is a summary sheet that shows 
the effect of collector size on savings-investment ratio (SIR).  This is the 
final desired answer to the question of the design process:  What size 
collector (and total system) gives greatest payback?  If all SIRs are less 
than 1.0, then a solar system is not economical for the application at the 
conditions used in the design.  The number of collector areas (or SIR's) that 
need be evaluated will vary with each job.  Maximum accuracy will be obtained 
by calculating enough points to plot an optimization curve of collector area 
versus SIR.  The most cost effective choice will then be apparent.  A period 
of 25 years' fuel saving is used in calculations per NAVFAC P-442 as lifetime 
for utilities.  Solar systems can be designed to last this long.  Three 
methods are shown in Section 3.7.  Computations completed on subsequent 
worksheets will be transferred to Worksheet A.  Note that only the portion of 
conventional heating systems cost in excess of that normally required should 
be included in solar systems cost analysis.  However, for budgetary purposes 
in new construction, then, the total solar system cost is the sum of the 
excess cost plus the previously excluded conventional system cost. 
3.2 Solar collector Parameters - Worksheet B.  The purpose of Worksheet B 
is to gather the variables needed to calculate FI and FL (see paragraph 
3.0).  The first two parameters, FR([tau][alpha])n and FRUL represent 
the y intercept and slope, respectively, of the [eta] versus [delta]T/I 
curve, Figure 2-7, applicable to the chosen collector.  FR is collector 
heat removal factor, 
87 
 | 
			![]()  | 
		|
![]()  | 
		||