Energy analysis of a solar heated house

The intent of this study was to analyze the performance of a solar heated house during one heating season from October to April and to develop a control strategy to conserve the energy required by the auxiliary heater. Several other types of control methods were simulated to compare with the proposed method. TRNSYS, a computer simulation program for solar energy systems, was used to model the solar heating system. An air system was considered in this study. The major components of the system include a collector, rock bed thermal storage, auxiliary heater, air blower and controller. A thermal load model of the house was also defined. Operation of the controller was based on temperature control of the room, storage, and collector outlet. The results show that the overall collector efficiency for the entire heating season is 49.6 percent and that the system is able to supply solar energy to meet 67.4 percent of the required heating load. The solar heating system is able to carry 48.22 percent of the load in January and 91.7 percent in October. The maximum energy collected is predicted to occur in November. The solar heating system is able to carry 2 percent to 46 percent more load than the other types of control methods.