Question

4. Suppose the house in question 3 is located in Cleveland where the annual average solar flux is 160 W/m2 2. If 10 m2 of solar panels operating at 20 percent efficiency were installed on this house to collect and store solar energy in the form of hot water:

a)How much energy could be gained in one year in this manner?
b)What fraction of the annual heating requirement is this?
c)Using the hot-water heating requirements for a bath from question 1(c), how many hot baths would this energy supply in one year?+

Answer 1

Solar flux that incident on it is given as

S = 160 W/m/m

Now we know that the area of solar panels is given as

A = 10 m^2

So total solar power received by solar panels is given as

Power Received = (Solar flux) \times (Area)PowerReceived=(Solarflux)×(Area)

P = S\times AP=S×A

now here we have

P = 160 \times 10P=160×10

P = 1600 WP=1600W

now we know that efficiency of the solar panels is 20%

so total output power will be

efficiency = \frac{P_{out}}{P_{in}}efficiency=

P

in

P

out

0.20 = \frac{P_{out}}{1600}0.20=

1600

P

out

P_{out} = 320 WP

out

=320W