DESIGN AND MODELING OF A LOW COST SOLAR WATER HEATER

Students at CPUT and the de HaagseHoogeschool designed and built a low cost solar heater, forthe low income market in informal settlements. The studentscould come up with their own design or refine existingtechnology where either concentrated solar poweredcollectors, flat collectors or vacuum tube collectors areused. The students had to use low cost, durable material tosurvive the harsh summer conditions in South Africa and thesystem had to be reliable with protection againstoverheating. A decision was made whether a backupauxiliary supply should be used to ensure a constant supplyof hot water. The system was designed and built at CPUTand measurements were taken. A need arose to compile asimulation program with MATLAB simulink © to optimise thesystem. This paper describes the different types of solarwater heaters and the modelling of the solar collector thatwas used.Index Terms ⎯ Flat collectors, auxiliary supply, solar waterheaters.