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SOLAR
Technical Manual
Complete guide to Dimplex Solar
Page 1 of 72
ST0133 – A 02/09
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Technical manual SOLAR 1 Contents 1 CONTENTS 2 2 BEFORE YOU START 4 GENERAL 4 3 SOLAR THERMAL 4 3.1 INTRODUCTION 4 3.2 SOLAR RADIATION 4 3.1.1 Available solar radiation 4 3.1.2 Orientation 6 3.3 SOLAR THERMAL SYSTEM 8 3.3.1 Components of a solar thermal system 8 3.3.2 Function of a solar thermal system 10 4 DIMPLEX SOLAR PRODUCTS 11 4.1 DIMPLEX SOLAR COLLECTOR SOLC220 11 4.1.1 General description 11 4.1.2 Hydraulic collector connection 13 4.1.3 Roof fixing kits 17 4.1.4
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Technical manual SOLAR 4.8 DIMPLEX SOLAR ACCESSORIES 44 4.8.1 General description 44 4.8.2 Corrugated flexible pipe SOLFH10/15 45 4.8.3 Feed through tiles SOLFTT and SOLFTM 46 5 SYSTEM SIZING 47 5.1 REQUIRED INFORMATION 47 5.2 SIZING GUIDE 47 6 PIPE WORK 49 6.1 TYPE OF PIPE WORK 49 6.2 PIPE WORK SIZING 49 6.3 PIPE WORK PRESSURE DROP 50 6.4 PIPE WORK LIQUID CONTENT 50 6.5 PIPE WORK FIXATION 51 6.6 PIPE WORK INSULATION 51 7 COMMISSIONING 52 8 OPERATION 53 8.1 CONTROL UNIT
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Technical manual SOLAR 2 Before you start General Thank you for your interest in Dimplex Solar products. We trust this manual will give you all the answers to the questions that you might have regarding the products. Al- though every care was taken to ensure the content of this manual is correct we do not accept any liability for claims resulting directly or indirectly from the application of the information contained in this manual. This manual is written specifically for the D
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Technical manual SOLAR in Figure 2, namely direct, reflected and diffuse radiation. The various types of radiation can occur in isolation but in most cases the radiation incident on a solar thermal collec- tor is a combination thereof. strong <200 W/m² diffuse <600 W/m² diffuse <1000 W/m² direct <1200 W/m² direct + reflected Figure 2 – Forms of incident solar radiation The solar radiation available outside the earth’s atmosphere, the so called extraterres- trial radiatio
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Technical manual SOLAR Figure 3 – UK and Ireland irradiation map (horizontal surface) 3.1.2 Orientation The solar irradiance shown in Figure 3 is an average value incident on the horizontal surface. As mentioned above, depending on the orientation and inclination of the solar collector the incident radiation onto the collector surface can vary although it might be in the same location. The terminology used to describe the exact location and orientation of a solar collector is
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Latitude Technical manual SOLAR Zenith S U N Slope N W Azimuth E S Figure 4 – Terminology to describe location and orientation of solar thermal panel Figure 5 – Effect of orientation on incident radiation levels Page 7 of 72 ST0133 – A 02/09 Longitude
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Technical manual SOLAR Although the location of the solar thermal system can be described using the longitude and latitude of the installation, in practise the locality is being used to determine the location of the system. The effect of the orientation on the incident solar radiation levels can be seen from Fig- ure 5. 3.3 Solar thermal system 3.3.1 Components of a solar thermal system Although solar thermal systems cover a whole range of applications, see Figure 1, the basic
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Technical manual SOLAR Each component in the solar thermal system fulfils a specific function which is described below: Solar thermal collector The solar thermal collector receives the solar radiation, converts it into thermal energy and passes it on to the heat transfer fluid. Heat transfer fluid The heat transfer fluid circulates through the solar collector, the pipe work and the heat exchanger. It transfers the energy gained by the collector into the storage device. The h
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Technical manual SOLAR User The user varies from installation to installation but has a big influence on the operation of the solar thermal system. However, the system has all components to ensure the provision of the comfort levels that the user expects. 3.3.2 Function of a solar thermal system Bearing in mind the function of the individual components, the function of a solar ther- mal system is in principle very simple. Based on two measured temperatures, one in the hottest (T
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Technical manual SOLAR A more detailed description of the function of the individual components follows in Chapter 4, Dimplex solar products. 4 Dimplex solar products The following section details the product features and relevant technical data of the components of the Dimplex solar offering. Where applicable a general description of the component’s function is given. 4.1 Dimplex solar collector SOLC220 4.1.1 General description The Dimplex solar collector SOLC220 is a solar
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Technical manual SOLAR 2 t −t () t −t m a m a η = η −a ⋅ −a ⋅ [1] 0 1 2 G G Where: η [-] thermal collector efficiency η [-] optical collector efficiency/zero loss coefficient 0 a [W/m²/K] linear heat loss coefficient 1 a [W/m²/K²] squared heat loss coefficient 2 G [W/m²] global incident radiation t [°C] collector middle temperature m t [°C] collector ambient temperature a 9 7 6 5 1 8 2 4 3 Figure 9 – SOLC220 heat loss modes The collector heat loss front (
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Technical manual SOLAR Figure 10 – Thermal efficiency curve Dimplex SOLC220 flat plate collector Figure 10 shows that the higher the temperature difference between the collector mod- ule and the ambient is, the lower is the efficiency of the product. Due to the required operating conditions of various applications (see Figure 1) the collector has to operate at varying efficiencies. In general central heating support applications are not recommended with solar thermal except if th
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Technical manual SOLAR - collector design - collector pressure drop - flow rate - required system output Figure 11 shows the Dimplex SOLC220 collector with the pipe work attached to the ab- sorber plate indicated. A B C D Figure 11 – Absorber pipe work Dimplex SOLC220 collector From Figure 11 it can be seen that the collector has 4 connections which can be used to connect the flow and return pipes of the installation and to connect the collectors be- tween each other. Th
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Technical manual SOLAR The flow and return of the collector are connected using a 800mm long insulated corru- gated stainless steel flexible hose (9.1). The interconnections consist of short flexible bellows (10.1). The remaining connections are to be blanked off using the blanking pieces (9.2). The connections components are depicted in Figure 12 using the same references as in the installation manuals. Figure 12 – Connection components Dimplex SOLC220 collector An overall vie
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Technical manual SOLAR An overall view of possible collector connections is given in Figure 14 detailing also the pressure drop at nominal low-flow and high-flow flow rates. Flow rate Pres. drop No. of collectors [l/min] [mbar] 1 150 1 2 325 150 2 2 4 330 3 150 3 330 6 4 160 4 8 340 160 5 5 10 340 6 170 6 350 12 185 7 7 14 385 195 8 8 16 400 9 200 9 18 420 10 210 10 20 500 Figure 14 – Collector connection options, flow rates and pressure dro
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Technical manual SOLAR Although only the vertical collector orientation is shown, the same principles can be applied to the horizontal collector installation. The same applies for the positioning of the flow and return, it can be changed from left to right hand side as long as the sensor (indicated by dot) is moved accordingly. Note: Up to 5 collectors can also be connected single sided with the orientation of the individual collectors as shown in Figure 14 and the sensor placed
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Technical manual SOLAR On roof kits The on roof kits come as basic and extension kit. The basic kit has to be ordered for each first collector of a collector field, the extension kit for each additional collector in the installation. Corrugated Plain tile tile Slate Sheet metal Figure 17 – On roof mounting options As detailed in Figure 16 the on roof kits suit various types of roof coverings. The differ- ent mounting methods for the various tiles are shown in Figure 17 diffe
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Technical manual SOLAR Integrated roof kit Integrated roof kit without flashings fitted with flashings fitted Figure 18 – Dimplex SOLC220 integrated roof kit without and with flashing kit fitted Free standing kits The free standing kit is designed for the vertical installation of the solar collector on even ground with a slope of 45° to 60°. For lower sloping angles shorted support struts can be ordered, allowing the collector to slope between 30° and 40°. As shown in Figure 24
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Technical manual SOLAR Figure 19 – Free standing kit row distance calculation details In addition to the row distance the fixation of the free standing kit to the mounting sur- face has to be considered carefully. Due to the shape of the flat plate collector consid- erable wind forces can act on the free standing kit installation. Ideally the free standing kit is bolted to a fixed structure. However, this is not always practicable, especially when the roof surface must not be pen
