Compact Heat Storage for Solar Heating Systems

Energy and cost efficient solar hot water systems require some sort of integrated storage, with high energy density and high power capacity for charging and discharging being desirable properties of the storage. This paper presents the results and conclusions from the design, and experimental performance evaluation of high capacity thermal energy storage using so-called phase change materials (PCMs) as the storage media. A 140 l 15 kW h storage prototype was designed, built, and experimentally evaluated. The storage tank was directly filled with the PCM having its phase change temperature at 58 degrees C. A tube heat exchanger for charging and discharging with water was submerged in the PCM. Results from the experimental evaluation showed that hot water can be provided with a temperature of 40 degrees C for more than 2 h at an average power of 3 kW. The experimental results also show that it is possible to charge the 140 l storage with close to the theoretically calculated value of 15 kW h. Hence, this is a PCM storage solution with a storage capacity of over 100 kW h/m(3), and an average power capacity during discharging of over 20 kW/m(3). However, it is desirable to increase the heat transfer rate within the prototype. A predesign of using a finned-tube coil instead of an unfinned coil show that by using finned tube, the power capacity for discharging can be at least doubled, if not tripled.