On Optimal Sizing of a Solar Thermal Building: A Novel Approach

Architecture Department, Islamic Azad University - Kerman Branch, Iran

Abstract

Within the last decade, domestic energy management has gained a lot of attention. As the complexity of the solar thermal system in terms of the number of system components and energy sources increases, understanding how to manage the cooperation of all the components in order to improve the global efficiency measurements is of crucial importance. Here, the question is how to define an optimal size of the main components in a solar thermal system in order to minimize system cost. Unlike the existing approaches, we propose the use of a novel algorithm called Gravitational Search Algorithm (GSA) to analyze the accurate sizing of energy components, i.e. collector size, tank volume and Auxiliary Power Unit (APU). The objective is to maximize solar fraction, minimize the energy consumption and installation costs subject to constraints. Our proposed GSA model is evaluated and compared with one of the most well-known algorithms, Particle Swarm optimization (PSO) taking into account the fundamental system characteristics. Numerical results show that our proposed methodology significantly improves energy efficiency and reduces operational cost of the solar thermal system in contemporary built environment.