Canadian/Dutch/Danish cooperation on low flow solar heating systems

摘要

Experimental and theoretical investigations which compare the thermal performance of low flow heating systems and traditional high flow systems were carried out. When designing a solar heating system, comparison testing with high and low flow operation can provide guidance for the choice of flow regime. Improvement of thermal stratification by changing from high to low flow operation is of major interest in this respect. It was concluded that for certain well-designed systems, low flow operation can result in slightly greater thermal performance than is the case for high flow systems. The difference in thermal performance appears to be larger in the case of the tested mantle system and even larger if the difference in the thermal stratification in the heat storage facility is greater. Thermal stratification was most improved in the case of the tested mantle system.