Prediction of Long-Term Performance of Active Solar Heating Systems Using Daily Hours of Bright Sunshine

Abstract

An algorithm based on daily hours of bright sunshine has been developed and used to evaluate the performance of active solar heating systems for different values of system parameters (collector area and efficiency curves; orientation and inclination; storage capacity; heating load). Comparisons of monthly and annual results with those obtained by other methods using measured values of global horizontal radiation show good results. The results were used to construct charts (for southern Québec in this case) which do not require values of solar radiation for the prediction of the system’s performance.