On Wed Dec 13 12:07:26 2023 John Larkin wrote:
On Wed, 13 Dec 2023 10:09:11 -0800 (PST), Fred Bloggs <bloggs.fredbloggs.fred@gmail.com> wrote:
'Scientists in the United States has developed a new photovoltaic-thermal system design that utilizes parallel water pipes as a cooling system to reduce the operating temperature of photovoltaic panels. The waste heat generated by this process is then
used to generate domestic hot water.'
Main thing is a miniature 11W pump stopped the panel conversion efficiency from degrading by a full 4%. The hot water thing is an aside. Unless the installation is at a YMCA or something similar, the average residential water heater is going to, or
actually must, divert the heat to prevent an overpressure release going off. Despite that it's a major cost advantage over those very expensive solar thermal heat collectors with sophisticated vacuum piping, circulating phase change medium, and all their
controls and special heat storage auxiliary water tanks, like those stone-lined tanks.
If that -0.45%/oC reduction in conversion efficiency is typical, it's a wonder the industry hasn't put more thought into cooling them.
https://www.pv-magazine.com/2023/12/12/using-waste-heat-from-pv-panels-to-generate-residential-hot-water/
That sounds economically absurd.
And why would this be a eureka-level invention now?
It's not, someone was just reinventing the wheel. The funniest part is that nowadays pv panels have gotten cheap enough that the most common "good enough" way to make solar hot water is to put up pv panels and use them to drive the bottom heating
element in a two-element electric water heater (with a controller), just to avoid all the pumps and plumbing and freezing hassles .
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