Economia de energia e redução do pico da curva de demanda para consumidores de baixa renda por agregação de energia solar térmica

The main objective of the present work is to establish a methodology capable of assessing, through the use of a compact thermosyphon solar hot water heating system, the energy saving and electric energy peak reduction potential during the peak hours for a group of low-income residential consumers. In order to quantify these potentials, a total of 90 lowincome consumers were chosen to have their electric energy consumption monitored. Analysis of the collected data rendered relevant information for energy conservation policies, such as the hourly distribution of hot water consumption, the fraction of the electric energy consumption used for water heating, the average contribution of electric showerheads to the peak demand, and the estimated solar fraction for the group of consumers. The validation of the TRNSYS (Transient System Simulation Program) computational code for a thermosyphon solar water heating system is undertaken. The multi-objective economic optimization of constructive parameters, with use of an average hot water consumption profile obtained from measured data, is also presented. In a case study, the result of the adopted methodology is the extra tariff value for energy consumption during peak hours in a differentiated tariff scenario. The results presented in this work are relevant to determine the viability of government policies towards promotion of the large-scale use of solar hot water heating systems in low – income housing units.