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Solar Energy 109 (2014) 82–92
www.elsevier.com/locate/solener

Performance evaluation of a solar water heater integrated

with a PCM nanocomposite TES at various inclinations
Hussain H. Al-Kayiem a,⇑, Saw C. Lin b
a
Mech. Eng. Dept., Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS, 31750 Tronoh, Perak, Malaysia
b
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Politeknik Ungku Omar, 31400 Ipoh, Perak, Malaysia

Received 10 June 2014; received in revised form 11 August 2014; accepted 12 August 2014

Communicated by: Associate Editor Yanjun Dai

Abstract

The present work presents and analyzes the results acquired from outdoor experimental measurements of a flat plate solar collector
integrated with built-in thermal energy storage. Paraffin wax as a PCM and a nanocomposite of paraffin wax with 1.0 wt% of 20-nm
nano-Cu particles were tested as the energy storage medium for TES. Three cases have been investigated, namely without PCM, with
PCM, and with the Cu-PCM nanocomposite, at 10°, 20°, and 30° inclination angles of each case. The system performance was evaluated
for water heating. The process involved a total change of the 60-l water tank at 7:00 PM and 7:00 AM. The use of water circulation of
0.5 kg/min and setting the collector at a 10° inclination angle was found to be the best operational condition. The measurement result of
the tank water temperature at 7:00 AM, after 24 h of operation, was 35.1 °C when the system operated without TES, while the operation
with the PCM and with the Cu-PCM nanocomposite resulted in 40.1 °C and 40.7 °C tank water temperatures, respectively. The best
performances analyzed were at 10°, with efficiencies of 47.6%, 51.1% and 52.0% for the cases without PCM, with PCM and with
Cu-PCM nanocomposite, respectively. This indicates that the enhancement of the system using TES with paraffin wax is considerable,
while further enhancement is not significant in the case of nanocomposite. Further measurements with various flow rates are
recommended to investigate the performance of the developed solar-TES integrated system.
Ó 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords: PCM; Solar collector; Nanocomposite; TES

1. Introduction during the night. As a solution, thermal energy storage

The use of domestic water heating utilizing solar energy
for residential and industrial consumption is increasing in
demand due to awareness of renewable energy technologies
and their beneficial impact on the environment. However,
the drawback of using solar energy systems is the non-
continuous operation due to the lack of solar irradiation
⇑ Corresponding author.
E-mail addresses: hussain_kayiem@petronas.com.my (H.H. Al-Kayiem),
clsaw78@gmail.com (S.C. Lin).
(TES) techniques have been proposed and evaluated from
the points of view of the storage materials, the storage
design, and the integration methods with the solar collector.
1.1. Integrated solar-TES
The advantage of using TES as an energy storage
method is the absorption of the extra heat at peak radia-
tion hours that is released when the solar radiation is
absent. The purpose of TES is to reduce the temperature
fluctuations during the peak solar radiation hours. The

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.solener.2014.08.021
0038-092X/Ó 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
 H.H. Al-Kayiem, S.C. Lin / Solar Energy 109 (2014) 82–92
Nomenclature
Ac area of solar collector (m2)
Cp specific heat (J/kg °C)
CpLH specific latent heat (J/kg)
m mass (kg)
m_ mass flow rate (kg/s)
gc collector efficiency (%)
DT temperature different (°C)
IT total solar radiation (W/m2)
Qu useful heat gain (W)
T temperature (°C)
Bg, Pg random and systematic uncertainty
Wg total uncertainty or error (%)
second reason to use TES is to minimize the heat loss from
the solar collector by absorbing the excess heat from the
absorber plate. As such, Kürklü et al. (2002) integrated
50 kg of paraffin into a 1.8 m  1.8 m solar collector area
to investigate the system performance experimentally on
a 24-h basis. The experimental results indicated that 60%
collector efficiency was obtained. The collector also exhib-
ited high heat loss of 12.5 W/m2 °C and 9.0 °C of temper-
ature drop. To improve the performance, Khalifa et al.
(2013) replaced the flat absorber plate with 6 circular pipe
absorber plates and integrated it with 43 kg of paraffin
wax. The experimental investigation was performed from
January 2012 until March 2012. The results indicated that
the collector efficiencies ranged from 45.0% to 54.0% with a
1.6 m  0.8 m collector size. The solar collector top loss
coefficients were 6.22 W/m2 °C, 6.39 W/m2 °C and
6.23 W/m2 °C for the month of January, February and
March, respectively. The high top loss coefficient in Febru-
ary was due to the high intensity of solar radiation, which
increased the absorber plate temperature compared to the
other months. Al-Hinti et al. (2010) stored paraffin wax
inside the water storage tank instead of inside the solar col-
lector. A total of 49 kg of paraffin wax was used and con-
nected with 4 units of 1.5 m2 area for the solar collector. By
including the drawn off effect, the experimental investiga-
tion indicated that 55 °C of hot water temperature can be
produced in the daytime, while 30 °C of hot water was
obtained for the next morning. However, no collector effi-
ciency was reported. Recently, Bouadila et al. (2014) pub-
lished experimental results of a solar water heater integrated
with latent heat TES in a configuration of two rectangular
cavities. They concluded that their TES approach extended
the operation of the system after sunset by approximately
5.0 h. The system efficiency varied from 25.0% to 35.0%.
1.2. PCM in TES
Thermal energy can be stored in the form of latent heat
by using suitable phase change materials (PCMs), such as
inorganic PCM, organic PCM and organic–inorganic
83
Subscripts
c collector
PCM PCM
Nanocomp. Cu-PCM nanocomposite
W water
l,PCM PCM during liquid phase
l,Nanocomp Cu-PCM nanocomposite during liquid
phase
s,PCM PCM during solid phase
s,Nanocomp Cu-PCM nanocomposite during solid
phase
PCM, which can offer high storage capacity per unit vol-
ume and per unit mass. The melting of a phase change
material (PCM) enables the absorption of larger amounts
of heat, which can be excessively available during the day-
time. This stored heat can then be released to the surround-
ing medium during the evening and night hours as the
PCM changes its phase again from liquid to solid. Another
way to improve the heat storage medium is by using nano-
additives. Various nano-fluids and nanocomposites have
been reported, primarily for enhancement of the thermal
conductivity. The thermal conductivity of paraffin wax
was enhanced by 35% and 40% when mixed with multi-
walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) of 1% and 2%,
respectively (Wang et al., 2009). The researcher doped 1%
carbon nanotubes (CNTs) into an acid-based phase change
material and found that the thermal conductivity was
enhanced by 30.0% (Wang et al., 2010). Song and Youn
(2005) reported an enhancement of 100% when epoxy
was mixed with 1.5% carbon nanotube (CNT) mass
fraction.
The specific heat capacity, Cp, of base materials exhib-
ited enhancement by mixing with nanoparticles. Zhou
and Zhao (2011) and Vajjha et al. (2010) reported
decreased values of Cp of aqueous nanofluids. In contrast,
Nelson et al. (2009) reported that the Cp of poly-alpha-ole-
fin (PAO) was enhanced by 50.0% when mixed with 0.6%
of graphite nanoparticles.
To date, nanofluid experimental investigations related to
solar collectors have been reported, but no attempt has
been made on the use of a nanocomposite as a PCM in
an integrated TES with solar collector experimental
work. Most of the reported works mainly focus on the
laboratory characterization of the nanocomposite material
properties.
Yousefi et al. (2012a,b) used MWCNT and Al2O3 nano-
fluid of 0.2% and 0.4% weight fractions to improve the
fluid heat absorption. The experimental measurements
revealed that the use of 0.2% MWCNTs as a surfactant
improved the collector efficiency, but a decrease was found
when 0.4 wt% was used.
84 H.H. Al-Kayiem, S.C. Lin / Solar Energy 109 (2014) 82–92
More details on the application of the nanofluids and the
nanocomposites in the TES and thermal energy transporta-
tion applications are reported by Al-Kayiem et al. (2013).
The objective of the present work is to investigate the
possibility of enhancing the performance of a flat plate solar
collector for water heating by using TES, with an emphasis
on the effect of the inclination angles of the system. Hence,
three inclination angles were chosen, specifically 10°, 20°
and 30°, at three operational modes at each one of the incli-
nation angles. The operational modes are without PCM,
with pure paraffin wax and with a nanocomposite of paraf-
fin wax with 1.0 wt% 20-nm nano-Cu additive.
2. Experimental implementations
The experiments to evaluate the system performance
were performed using an in-house designed and fabricated
setup. The laboratory experiments were performed using
sophisticated equipment to characterize the PCM and the
PCM nanocomposite. The experimental measurement pro-
gram was carried out over one year starting from May,
2011 until April, 2012. Eight (8) months, from May until
December 2011, were accounted for the phase change
material (PCM–TES) and four (4) months, from January
to April 2012, were accounted for the nanoparticles-
enhanced phase change material (nano-PCM–TES).
2.1. The experimental setup
A PCM-integrated solar collector was designed and fab-
ricated for the experimental measurements in the solar
research site (SRS) in Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS
(UTP). The site was located at the Eastern longitude 101°
and Northern latitude 4.38° with an altitude of 32 m above
sea level. The system is placed facing south to capture opti-
mum solar radiation. However, because of dust and rain
water retention, it is recommended that the solar collector
be tilted between 5° to 10° higher than the latitude
(Henderson et al., 2007; Kalogirou, 2004). Such arrange-
ment is advised for low latitude regions like Malaysia
where the investigations have been carried out.
The energy storage system in the present experimental
investigation is integrated with a flat plate collector in
one single unit, as shown in Fig. 1. Nine riser tubes are
Outer glazing Inner glazing
37 Fins/extended surface
Fig. 1. Schematic view of the solar-TES integrated collector.
adhered to the upper surface of the absorber plate, and
37 extended surface fins are fixed onto the lower surface
of the absorber plate. The fins are used to increase the heat
transfer surface area between the PCM or the nanocom-
posite and the absorber plate.
The paraffin is in direct contact with the lower surface of
the absorber plate. During the daytime, a portion of the
solar radiation heats the water in the riser pipes, whereas
the rest of solar radiation melts the PCM or nanocompos-
ite in the TES as a charging process. During the nighttime,
the discharging process occurs. The PCM or the nanocom-
posite in the TES releases the stored thermal energy to heat
the water in the riser pipes. The configuration of the riser-
absorber-fins is designed as a heat exchanger unit, which
exchanges thermal energy between the TES medium and
the water. This system was tested at three inclination angles
of 10°, 20° and 30° at a flow rate of 0.5 kg/min, which is the
minimum capacity of the water the pump. The system per-
formance was evaluated for a full-day cycle.
The dimensions of the integrated solar collector are
shown in Fig. 2. Twenty-three thermocouples are attached
to the solar collector for temperature measurements. A
GRAPHTEC data logger is used to capture the tempera-
ture signal for 24 h with an accuracy of 0.1 °C ± 0.8%. A
SHENITEC ultrasonic flow meter is used to measure and
control the water flow rate with an accuracy of
0.0001 m3/s ± 0.5%. Solar radiation is captured by
using KIMO solarimeter SL200 with an accuracy of
0.01 W/m2 ± 5%.
The calculated paraffin wax required is 26 kg; however,
because the volume of liquid paraffin wax can contract by
12% of its volume when its phase changes from liquid to
solid, the amount of paraffin wax added was in excess of
2 kg. The excess volume of paraffin wax added was to
ensure good surface contact area between the TES and
the surface of the absorber plate. This good surface contact
is required to improve the conduction/convection heat
transfer between the TES and the absorber plate. Hence,
a total of 28 kg of paraffin wax was used as the TES med-
ium for operation with the PCM.
Based on independent investigations by Lin and
Al-Kayiem (2012), the results encouraged the use the
1%wt nano Cu + Paraffin wax nanocomposite. An
additional 1.0% weight fraction, i.e., 280 g of copper
Absorber plate 9 Riser tubes
PCM / nano-PCM Insulaon Casing
 H.H. Al-Kayiem, S.C. Lin / Solar Energy 109 (2014) 82–92 85

Ø 15 mm Ø 9 mm

Hot water Solar Collector

out Data Acquision system

Water Storage Tank

950 mm

1000 mm
Cold
water in

1000 mm

Fig. 2. Dimensions of the riser tubes and the absorber plate.

Ultrasonic Flow Sensor
nanoparticles, was added to the PCM for the nanocompos- Pump
ite. Twenty-nanometer copper powder was dispersed into
the paraffin wax because 20 nm is the smallest size of cop- Fig. 3. The experimental setup of the integrated solar collector-TES water
heater.
per nanoparticles that can be produced and supplied by the
Hongwu Nanometer Co. calculated by considering the systematic uncertainty, Bg,
In this experiment, 60 l of water is filled in the tank and and random uncertainty, Pg. The systematic uncertainty
circulated through the solar collector for 24 h. A 0.5-HP in the predicted efficiency values is due to the accumulated
pump is used to circulate water for 15 min and then is uncertainties in the measured mass flow rate, the tempera-
stopped for 30 min using a timer that is set for the 24-h ture differences of the water flowing in the risers, and the
experimentation period. This process helps to reduce the measured solar intensity, in the form
electricity consumption and provides a longer lifetime of " 2  2  2 #
the water pump. Table 1 shows the specifications and dg dg dg
Bg ¼  Bm_ þ  BDT þ  BI t
details of the integrated solar-TES collector system. dm_ dDT dI t
The 60 l of water is capable of supplying hot water for
four persons in a family (Srinivas, 2011; Veeraboina and which is predicted to be 0.2001.
Ratnam, 2012). Water is scheduled for withdrawal at The random error associated with data measurements is
7:00 AM and 7:00 PM, every day. All of the 60 l of water evaluated with 95% confidence levels, or 5% error, as:
is withdrawn and replaced by new fresh tap water every tS g
12 h. The integrated solar-TES experimental setup is shown Random Uncertainty; P g ¼
M 1=2
in Fig. 3.
where t is an empirical constant equal to 2.776 for data
repeatability of 5 times and 95% confidence level
2.2. Uncertainty analysis (Coleman and Steele, 2009), and Sg is the total error in
the efficiency prediction. The calculated random uncer-
To reduce the error in the results, each measurement tainty is 0.47. Finally, the maximum possible error in the
case is repeated over four days and the average values efficiency predicted values is obtained from
are considered for presentation in the figures and tables. qffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
However, uncertainty analysis for the measurement was 2
W g ¼ ðBg Þ þ ðP g Þ
2
ð1Þ
Table 1
Specifications of the integrated solar-TES collector. The total maximum possible uncertainty, Wg, is
Specification Description Dimension
estimated to be ±0.5% of the efficiency values.
Glass covers Window glass 3 mm
Collector frame Wood 1.2 m  1.2 m  0.15 m 2.3. PCM Characterization
Frame Wood –
Absorber plate Copper 1.0 m  1.0 m  0.001 m The 20-nm copper powder was chosen as the nanoaddi-
Insulation Glass wool 100 mm tive because it is very small and has high thermal conduc-
Riser pipe Copper Ø 10 mm
tivity compared to other metal nanoparticles. In the
Header pipe Copper Ø 15 mm
Coating Black paint – experiment, a PerkinElmer DSC-1 device with an accuracy
Water tank PVC 180 l of 0.01 °C ± 5% is used to measure the melting point, solid-
PCM storage tank Copper 1.0 m  1.0 m  0.04 m ification point, latent heat and specific heat of the PCM
PCM Pure Paraffin wax 28 kg and Nano-PCM. The Ultrapycnometer 1000 device with
Nano-Cu powder 20-nm size 2.8 g
an accuracy of 0.0001 kg/m3 ± 0.02% is used to measure
86 H.H. Al-Kayiem, S.C. Lin / Solar Energy 109 (2014) 82–92

the density of the PCM and Nano-PCM. A clamp press The daytime heat source is solar radiation, whereas heating
thermal conductivity device with an accuracy of 0.01 W/ during the nighttime is obtained from the PCM.
m °C ± 0.5% is used to measure the thermal conductivity The prediction of the solar collector efficiency, g, is
of the PCM and Nano-PCM. The thermophysical property evaluated as below:
data are important for the calculation of the system effi- Day and nighttime efficiency, case 1 (without PCM),
ciencies presented in this section. The measurement results Qgain;w
of the properties of the paraffin wax and the 1.0 wt% nano- gc ¼ ð6Þ
Ac I T
Cu in PCM as the nanocomposite are presented in Table 2.
Eq. (6) is used to predict the daytime efficiency for all
3. Performance evaluation procedures cases without PCM, with PCM and with nano-PCM. The
nighttime efficiency prediction is represented below, where
The performance of the integrated solar-TES water hea- the heating of water is due to the discharged heat from the
ter is evaluated by determination of the system efficiency PCM or the nanocomposite.
using the energy and mass balances involved in the system. Day and nighttime efficiency, case 2 (with PCM),
The useful energy converted, during one hour, from the Qgain;w
solar radiation to useful energy to heat the water is: gc ¼      DT  ð7Þ
mC p DT
Ac I T þ 3600
þ mC PLH
3600 PCM
þ mC3600
P
s;PCM
l;PCM
Heat Gain; Qgain;w ¼ m_ w Cpw DT w ð2Þ
Day and nighttime efficiency, case 3 (with
The above general equation of useful heat gain can be nanocomposite).
further specified into three equations when the PCM or
Qu
the nanocomposite is involved. Because the paraffin wax gc ¼   mCPLH   
mC p DT mC p DT
and the nanocomposite are phase change materials, the Ac I T þ 3600
þ 3600 nanocomp:
þ 3600
l;nanocomp s;nanocomp:
thermal processes in these materials consist of the gain
ð8Þ
and loss of the sensible heat and the latent heat. Hence,
for one hour of operation, we have the following.
Heat gain when PCM is in the solid state, 4. Results and discussion
mCps ðT S2  T S1 Þ
Sensible Heat ¼ ð3Þ To reduce the uncertainty in the measurement results,
3600
the mean values of five days of data for each operational
Heat gain during phase change, case were collected for two months, starting May 2012 until
June 2012. The system was tested at a fixed water circula-
mCpLH
Latent Heat ¼ ð4Þ tion flow rate of 0.5 kg/min and with 10°, 20°, and 30°
3600
inclination angles of the collector, facing south.
Heat gain when PCM is in the liquid state, The ASHRAE Standard 93-2003 (2003) was followed as
the standard measurement and analysis procedure. Accord-
mCpl;PCM ðT l;PCM2  T l;PCM 1 Þ ing to ASHRAE 93-2003, at least four sets of repeatability
Sensible Heat ¼ ð5Þ
3600 data with a minimum of four symmetry points are required
before and after solar noon to plot the collector efficiency
where subscripts 1 and 2 are the measured temperatures of
graph. In this study, the data are recorded at 11:00 AM,
the TES materials at the start of the hour and at the end of
12:00 PM, 1:00 PM, 2:00 PM, 3:00 PM, 4:00 PM,
the hour, respectively.
8:00 PM and 9:00 PM as standard local time and are
The solar water heater operation in the experiment is
repeated for five different days. The plotted data at
examined over 24 h, for day and night time evaluation.
11:00 AM, 12:00 PM, 1:00 PM, and 2:00 PM are the times
before and after the solar noon. The data for 3:00 PM and
4:00 PM are used to plot the data because the TES was at
Table 2
its highest charging rate, while the data at 8:00 PM and
Thermophysical properties of the PCM and the nanocomposite of 1.0 wt%
nano-Cu blended with the PCM. 9:00 PM are at the highest discharging rate of the TES
period.
Thermophysical properties Storage medium
PCM Nanocomposite
4.1. Efficiency analysis of the system
Melting temperature (°C) 60.5 59.6
Solidification temperature (°C) 58.7 58.4
Latent heat (kJ/kg) 166.7 160.3 The collector efficiency, gc, for the overall daytime and
Specific heat, solid phase (kJ/kg °C) 1905 1850 nighttime for the three cases are plotted at 10°, 20° and
Specific heat, liquid phase (kJ/kg °C) 2200 2100 30° inclination angles in Figs. 4–6, respectively. The maxi-
Thermal conductivity (W/m°C) 0.172 0.226 mum efficiencies of the solar collector for case 1, case 2,
Density (kg/m3) 908.6 976.5
and case 3 are 68.8%, 69.0%, and 69.7%, respectively, for
 H.H. Al-Kayiem, S.C. Lin / Solar Energy 109 (2014) 82–92
Fig. 4. Collector efficiency at a flow rate of 0.5 kg/min and an inclination
angle of 10°.
Fig. 5. Collector efficiency at a flow rate of 0.5 kg/min and an inclination
angle of 20°.
Fig. 6. Collector efficiency at a flow rate of 0.5 kg/min and an inclination
angle of 30°.
87
operation at the 10° inclination angle, as shown in Fig. 4.
This observation is due to the higher absorber plate tem-
perature that increases the heat loss coefficient for the case
without PCM. For case 2 and case 3, some of the captured
solar radiation is converted to thermal energy, which trans-
fers to the water, and the other part is transferred to melt
and heat the PCM and nanocomposite in the TES. For
these cases, the absorber plate operating temperature can
be reduced and the heat loss to the surroundings can be
minimized by storing the thermal energy in the PCM and
in the nanocomposite. When the absorber plate is operat-
ing at high temperature, the heat loss from the absorber
plate will also be high (Bisen et al., 2011). Nevertheless,
the efficient solar collector will capture more solar radia-
tion rather than lose it to the environment through convec-
tion, conduction and radiation.
The results of the system efficiency at the 20° inclination
angle are plotted in Fig. 5. A slightly lower efficiency was
observed in the case of the 20° inclination angle compared
to the 10° inclination angle. This difference is due to the
lower solar radiation captured by the solar collector at
the 20° inclination angle.
By setting the inclination of the collector to 30°, further
reduction in the efficiency was observed, as shown in the
plots in Fig. 5. Due to the lower solar radiation harvested,
the solar collector performance is reduced; the mean effi-
ciency values are reduced to 37.1%, 39.0% and 39.6% for
case 1, case 2, and case 3, respectively.
Table 3 summarizes the results in terms of the maximum
and average efficiency values at each tested case for the
three tested angles. The best efficiency values are recorded
at the 10° inclination angle when the solar water heater is
integrated with the nanocomposite TES, i.e., case 3. In this
case, the maximum efficiency is 69.7%, and the mean day
and night efficiency is 52.0%.
Despite the thermal conductivity of the nanocomposite
being increased to 0.22 W/m2 °C compared to 0.176 W/
m2 °C for the pure paraffin, the system efficiency is
improved only slightly by approximately 0.9%. This slight
improvement is due to the low percentage of nano-Cu sus-
pended at the top layer of the nanocomposite. The hetero-
geneous nature of the mixture of paraffin wax and copper
nanoparticles caused a small percentage of the suspension
of copper nanoparticles to be on top of the mixture. This
heterogeneity indicates that the interactions of the mole-
cules are weak, which reduces the enhancement of the ther-
mophysical properties of the nanocomposite, particularly
the thermal conductivity.
Operation of the system with the nanocomposite, i.e.,
case 3, with 10° inclination exhibited the best enhancement
of the collector efficiency, for which the overall efficiency is
improved by 8.5% compared to case 1, i.e., the case without
the contribution of TES. The integrated solar water heater
configurations have efficiencies ranging from 51.1% to 52%
at the 10° inclination angle, which are higher compared
with the system reported by Bouadila et al., 2014, which
exhibited efficiencies ranging from 25.0% to 35.0%. The
88 H.H. Al-Kayiem, S.C. Lin / Solar Energy 109 (2014) 82–92

Table 3
Summary of the measured efficiencies of the system at all integration operational cases at inclination angles of 10°, 20°, and 30°.
Case Max eff. (%) % Of improvement Overall eff. (%) % Of improvement
At 10° inclination
Case 1 68.8 – 47.6 –
Case 2 69.0 0.3 51.1 6.8
Case 3 69.7 1.3 52.0 8.5
At 20° inclination
Case 1 65.8 – 44.8 –
Case 2 66.2 0.6 47.6 5.9
Case 3 66.8 1.5 48.0 6.7
At 30° inclination
Case 1 56.0 – 37.1 –
Case 2 57.0 1.8 39.0 4.9
Case 3 58.0 3.4 39.6 6.3

reason for this improvement is that in the present design,

the absorber has a larger contact area with the PCM or
nanocomposite through the extended surfaces in the lower Table 4
Performance results of the integrated solar-TES water heater.
surface of the absorber.
h FRsa FRUL (W/m2 °C)
4.2. Performance analysis of the system Case 1: Without PCM
10° 0.688 5.831
20° 0.658 5.631
The instantaneous performance of the system is evalu- 30° 0.560 5.365
ated through an analysis of the heat removal factor and Case 2: With PCM
the overall heat loss coefficient. The FRUL represents the 10° 0.690 5.369
heat loss from the solar collector, which the researchers 20° 0.662 5.235
are attempting to minimize, while FRsa represents the heat 30° 0.570 5.144
Case 3: Nanocomposite
absorbed from the solar collector. A higher value of FRsa 10° 0.697 5.291
means a higher instantaneous efficiency of the solar collec- 20° 0.668 5.197
tor. In contrast, a lower value of FRUL means a higher 30° 0.580 5.088
instantaneous efficiency of the solar collector (Duffie and
Beckman, 2006). FRUL and FRsa are important parameters
for the evaluation of the performance of the solar collector. loss to the surroundings. Cases 2 and 3 have a lower absor-
The two parameters are commonly used in the prediction ber plate temperature because part of the thermal energy
of the solar collector instantaneous efficiency, as from solar radiation is transferred to the PCM and to the
nanocomposite, respectively, which prevents the absorber
Ac F R ðI T ðsaÞ  U L ½T i  T a Þ
gi ¼ ð9Þ plate from overheating, thereby minimizing the heat loss
Ac I T to the surroundings.
which can be arranged as For increased inclination, the overall heat loss coefficient
  parameter and heat removal factor exhibited decreases in
Ti  Ta
gi ¼ F R U L þ F R sa ð10Þ their values. This decrease is due to the lower solar radiation
IT
intensity harvested by the absorber, which reduces the heat
Eqs. (6)–(8) are manipulated to estimate FR and UL for absorption coefficient. Although the system at 10° inclina-
each case by fitting each equation to the linear equation of tion exhibits a higher value of heat loss coefficient, the value
the form of the heat removal factor also increased. When the TES is
y ¼ F R U L x þ F R sa filled with PCM and nanocomposite, the heat removal fac-

tor is further improved by absorbing the excess heat from
Ti  Ta
where y ¼ gi and x ¼ the absorber plate. Thus, PCM and the nanocomposite help
IT to minimize the heat loss to the surroundings by reducing
where Ti = inlet water temperature, Ta = ambient temper- the absorber plate temperature.
ature and IT = hourly solar radiation. It can be concluded that the integration of the TES, in
The values of the performance parameters FRULx and the configuration of a single compact unit, not only extends
FRsa are tabulated in Table 4 for the three TES cases at the operation time after sunset but also during the daytime,
the inclination angles of 10°, 20°, and 30°. Values of the the transfer of the thermal energy to the TES material
heat loss coefficient for case 1 are higher than those of case reduces the temperature of the absorber plate. Accordingly,
2 and case 3. The reason for this difference is due to the losses to the environment are reduced and the system per-
higher absorber plate temperature that causes higher heat formance is improved.
 H.H. Al-Kayiem, S.C. Lin / Solar Energy 109 (2014) 82–92
Fig. 7. Absorber plate and temperatures at the 10° inclination angle for the three operational cases.
4.3. Thermal analysis of the system
Fig. 7 shows the absorber plate temperature during 24 h,
starting from 7:00 AM to the next day at 7:00 AM, for the
case of 10° inclination. The figure displays the results of the
hourly measurements of the three cases of the TES. Each
data point represents an average of at least four days of
repeatability. The absorber temperature was sharply fall
after 7.00 AM and 7.00 PM and continue falling for
around one hour. This is because the sharp reduction in
the temperature of the replaced water in the water tank.
The transfer of thermal energy from the absorber to the
water in the risers is not immediate and the heating process
requires some time to reach thermal balance. The results
indicate that the absorber plate temperatures for case 1
are higher than those of the other two cases during the day-
time from 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM. This result is because all of
the solar radiation reaching the absorber plate is converted
to thermal energy in the absorber plate. In cases 2 and 3,
part of the solar radiation is charged to the PCM and the
nanocomposite, causing the PCM to melt. As discussed
previously, this melting will increase the losses to the sur-
roundings of the system. After sunset, a considerable differ-
ence is found in the measured absorber temperature among
the cases. After 6:00 PM and until 7:00 AM the next morn-
ing, the absorber plate temperatures for cases 2 and 3 are
higher than for case 1. During the nighttime, the TES
releases thermal energy to the absorber plate, which
enhances the operation of the system, where a higher water
temperature is obtained, as will be described in the next
section. The maximum absorber plate temperatures are
recorded at approximately 2:00 PM, with values of
62.7 °C, 62.1 °C, and 61.0 °C for case 1, case 2, and case
3, respectively, where the measured solar intensity is at a
maximum value of 762.0 W/m2.
The other thermal performance indicator is the TES
behavior. Temperature measurements for paraffin wax,
i.e., case 2, and the nanocomposite, i.e., case 3, are shown
in Fig. 8 for a full day record. During the daytime, the
89
paraffin wax and the nanocomposite temperature could
reach as high as 60.5 °C and 61.0 °C, at approximately
3:00 PM. Subsequently, the TES temperature starts to
reduce gradually until the time of the water change at
7:00 PM. After changing the water, the TES temperature
reduces steeply and reaches an equilibrium state at approx-
imately midnight. From 7:00 PM until 7:00 AM, the TES
discharges heat to increase the temperature of the water
in the risers through the absorber plate.
The measurement results of the water temperature in the
tank during the day, on an hourly basis, are plotted in
Figs. 9–11 for case 1, case 2, and case 3, respectively, to
reveal the effect of the inclination angle on the water heat-
ing. Each data point represents the mean of four days of
data acquisition. For the three cases of TES filling, the
highest tank water temperatures are recorded from
2:00 PM to 3:00 PM. The maximum hot water tempera-
tures generated in case 1 are 59.1 °C, 57.1 °C and 52.5 °C
for 10°, 20° and 30° inclinations, respectively, as shown
in Fig. 9. Fig. 10 shows case 2 results, where the maximum
hot water temperatures obtained are 57.4 °C, 55.7 °C and
51.5 °C for 10°, 20° and 30° inclinations, respectively.
Fig. 11 shows the case 3 results, where the highest hot
water temperatures are 58.0 °C, 55.6 °C and 51.7 °C, which
are only slightly different from the results of case 2. The
temperature difference between case 1 and case 2 was
±1.7 °C because part of the solar radiation was absorbed
by the PCM and the PCM nanocomposite, respectively.
During the nighttime, case 2 and case 3 performed better
than case 1. The results indicated that at 10°, 20° and 30°
inclinations, the hot water temperatures retained the next
morning were 40.2 °C, 39.0 °C and 35.2 °C, respectively,
for case 2, and the values for 10°, 20° and 30° inclinations
were 40.8 °C, 39.2 °C and 35.3 °C, respectively, for case 3.
A slight increase of 0.5 °C was observed due to improve-
ment of the thermal conductivity of the nanocomposite.
The case 1 hot water temperatures reported the next
morning were 35.1 °C, 33.9 °C and 32.2 °C for 10°, 20°
and 30° inclinations, respectively. The contribution of
90 H.H. Al-Kayiem, S.C. Lin / Solar Energy 109 (2014) 82–92

Fig. 8. TES temperatures at 10° inclination angle, for the operational cases of the use of the PCM and the nanocomposite.

Fig. 9. Hourly measurements results of the water temperature in the tank at 10°, 20°, and 30° inclination angles for case 1.

Fig. 10. Hourly measurement results of the water temperature in the tank at 10°, 20°, and 30° inclination angles for case 2.

TES to the solar water heater indicated that the hot water tem-
perature can be retained the next morning to enable the tem-
perature to be increased by 5.7 °C when compared to case 1.
The noticeable enhancement gained from the TES is
clear in the measured temperatures after changing the
water at 7:00 PM in the water tank. For the 10° inclination
angle, the water temperature drop after the water change is
from 52.6 °C to 36.5 °C, from 54.9 °C to 39.3 °C, and
from 54.7.3 °C to 35.4 °C for case 1, case 2, and case 3,
respectively.
 H.H. Al-Kayiem, S.C. Lin / Solar Energy 109 (2014) 82–92
Fig. 11. Hourly measurement results of the water temperature in the tank at 10°, 20°, and 30° inclination angles for case 3.
For case 1, the water temperatures increased from 36.5
at 8:00 PM to 38.6 at 9:00 PM due to the small thermal
energy transfer from the absorber to the water in the risers.
After 9:00 PM, the water temperature started to drop by
approximately 1.5–2.0 °C per hour, reaching its minimum
value at 7:00 AM. The mean value of the water tempera-
ture in the night is approximately 35.0 ± 3.5 °C. However,
in case 2 and case 3, the water temperatures increase again
after 8:00 PM to over 40.0 °C. The thermal energy stored in
the TES is released to the water in the risers and maintains
the tank water temperature over 40.0 °C until the next
morning.
By inspecting the water temperature in the tank after
7:00 PM for the three cases, it is quite clear that the TES con-
tributes considerably to increasing the water temperature
and can maintain hot water for more than 5 h compared with
case 1. This result is the same as that claimed by Bouadila
et al. (2014) in their experimental investigation of solar water
heater backed up by the attached PCM cavity.
5. Conclusions
The experimental setup was designed and fabricated to
investigate the performance of an integrated solar-TES
water heater at 10°, 20°, and 30° inclination angles. Three
cases were investigated: case 1 was without TES material,
case 2 was with PCM, and case 3 with nanocomposite.
The PCM was paraffin wax, and the nanocomposite was
a paraffin wax base with 1.0 wt% additive of 20-nm Cu
nanoparticles. The following conclusions are drawn from
the results:
(1) The thermal conductivity of the nanocomposite was
enhanced by 24% compared to the pure paraffin wax.
(2) The system performance is optimum at 10°
inclination.
(3) The efficiency of the solar collector was enhanced by
6.9% and 8.4% when the integrated TES was filled
with paraffin wax and Cu-PCM nanocomposite,
respectively.
91
(4) After the water was changed at 7:00 PM, the inte-
grated system produced hot water at 40.1 °C and
40.7 °C the next morning by utilizing the discharged
thermal energy from the TES overnight.
Acknowledgments
The main author expresses his thanks to the Malaysian
Ministry of Higher Education for sponsoring the scholar-
ship of his Ph.D. study. Additionally, the authors acknowl-
edge the Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS for their
technical and financial support to conduct the research
under the internal research grant STIRF 44/08-09.
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