A research on the 4th generation intelligent energy-saving solar water heating tank

Abstract

Currently, the 1st generation and 2nd generation solar water heating tanks’ design is unsatisfactory in the current use situation. When hot water is used with the hot water being consumed, thus cold water will be added into the same tank at the same time, resulting in a significant drop in the temperature of the hot water in the tank and making it necessary to use an additional electric heating rod for reheating. To address this shortcoming, a 3rd generation solar water heating tank was designed to improve the situation. In other words, a “movable dividing disk” is added inside the tank to completely isolate the hot water from the cold water so that the entire tank of hot water can be 100% utilized. However, when the hot water is exhausted, the 3rd generation solar water heating tank must adopt an electric heating rod to reheat the entire tank of water or make an additional small heating tank. To solve this problem, this article develops the 4th generation intelligent energy-saving solar water heating tank, in which a “fixed dividing disk” is installed inside the water heating tank to create a cold-water heating zone of about 10% of the total capacity for local heating. This allows for an efficient and faster hot water supply, saving about 90% of energy when the first tank of hot water is used up and a separate electric heating rod is used for heating.