Optimum Design of Tilt Angle and Horizontal Direction of Solar Collectors under Obstacle’s Shadow for Building Applications

Abstract

Solar collectors can provide clean, renewable, and domestic energy. The tilt angle and horizontal direction of solar collectors significantly affect its efficiency. There are many good methods to search the optimum tilt angle and horizontal direction to realize the maximum total radiation on the solar collector within a particular day or a specific period. However, it is hard to realize it when solar collectors are placed under obstacle’s shadows; especially when some obstacles, such as trees, have irregular shapes. This paper presents algorithms to achieve the best tilt angle and horizontal direction for solar collector’s performance under the free-form surfaces 3D obstacle’s shadow. The solution process is composed of 4 steps. First, it creates a 3D scene, in which a unique color is given to the solar collector. Second, it employs orthographic projection from the point of view to get an image of the scene. Third, the number of pixels is used to represent the efficiency of the solar collector by counting the pixels of the unique color. Fourth, the efficiency of solar collector in each direction in a period of time is calculated with many images to further select the best direction.