6.4.7.2 Solar thermal energy for heating and hot water
Most solar thermal collectors used in buildings are either flat-plate or evacuated-tube collectors. Integrated PV/thermal collectors (in which the PV panel serves as the outer part of a thermal solar collector) are also commercially available (Bazilian et al., 2001; IEA, 2002). ‘Combisystems’ are solar systems that provide both space and water heating. Depending on the size of panels and storage tanks, and the building thermal envelope performance, 10 to 60% of the combined hot water and heating demand can be met by solar thermal systems at central and northern European locations. Costs of solar heat have been 0.09–0.13 €/kWh for large domestic hot water systems and 0.40–0.50 €/kWh for combisystems with diurnal storage (Peuser et al., 2002).
Worldwide, over 132 million m2 of solar collector surface for space heating and hot water were in place by the end of 2003. China accounts for almost 40% of the total (51.4 million m2), followed by Japan (12.7 million m2) and Turkey (9.5 million m2) (Weiss et al., 2005).
6.4.8 Domestic hot water
Options to reduce fossil or electrical energy used to produce hot water include (i) use of water saving fixtures, more water-efficient washing machines, cold-water washing and (if used at all) more water-efficient dishwashers (50% typical savings); (ii) use of more efficient and better insulated water heaters or integrated space and hot-water heaters (10–20% savings); (iii) use of tankless (condensing or non-condensing) water heaters, located close to the points of use, to eliminate standby and greatly reduce distribution heat losses (up to 30% savings, depending on the magnitude of standby and distribution losses with centralized tanks); (v) recovery of heat from warm waste water; (vi) use of air-source or exhaust-air heat pumps; and (vii) use of solar thermal water heaters (providing 50–90% of annual hot-water needs, depending on climate). The integrated effect of all of these measures can frequently reach a 90% savings. Heat pumps using CO2 as a working fluid are an attractive alternative to electric-resistance hot water heaters, with a COP of up to 4.2–4.9 (Saikawa et al., 2001; Yanagihara, 2006).