Energy efficiency improvement of solar water heating systems-An IoT based commissioning methodology

This paper studies a mechanism to investigate and to improve the energy efficiency of a solar water heating system (SWH) in a hospital building located in Singapore. We utilize the data collected from Internet of-Things (IoT) to gain information on different environmental and operational aspects of the considered system, that determine opportunities for improving the efficiency of various sub-systems of the SWH, and develop control strategies for efficient operation of the overall system. Through the data collected by IoT, such as water flow, heat pump and water pump operational schedule, availability of solar, and electricity consumption, we perform a comprehensive energy audit to analyze the efficiency of subsystems and the performance of overall system as well. Based on the insights obtained from data analysis, corresponding control strategies for various sub-systems are developed to improve the efficiency of the overall system and reduce the operational cost of the SWH. Finally, the effectiveness of the proposed control strategies is confirmed through experiment on the site of the considered SWH. (c) 2020 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.