Experimental and numerical study of photoelectric water heater performance for radiant heating system.

The essential radiant heating system component is a water heater so this study presents an experimental and numerical work of a water heater with an AC heating element powered by photovoltaic panels. The experimental work included a study of the thermal performance of a water tank under a constant ambient temperature and different supplied water temperatures. The impact of ambient temperatures of (290,292, and 294) K on the tank water temperature distribution under a constant supplied water temperature of 280K had been studied. Also, the stratification of water temperature is analyzed with the height of the tank. Numerical work studied the tank water temperature distribution with time for different supplied water temperatures of (280,285 and,290) K. Experimental work results have been utilized for developing and validating the numerical work results The comparison between experimental and numerical results appears good matching and the error does not exceed 3%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]