Energy and Buildings 101 (2015) 5463

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Energy and Buildings

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/enbuild

Evaluation of solar hot water heating system applications to high-rise

multi-family housing complex based on three years of
system operation
Jung-Hyun Yoo
Land & Housing Research Institute, 462-2, Jeonmin-Dong, Yuseong-Gu, Daejeon 305-731, Republic of Korea

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history:
Received 14 October 2014
Received in revised form 4 February 2015
Accepted 20 April 2015
Available online 27 April 2015
Keywords:
High-rise multi-family housing complex
Solar hot water heating system
Hot water use in residential sector
This study evaluated three-year operation of solar hot water heating system installed in multi-family
housing complex with 1179 households in 14 units. At rst, since the size of systems for multi-families
are large, position of the building services room and collector installation becomes a signicant matter.
In order to resolve this, three building services rooms for three or four units of households were planned
and the solar collectors were integrated directly on the roof facing South at 22 degrees to the horizontal.
The accumulated heat gain from three-year operation was 52% of the design baseline (4069 GJ/year). The
reason for this could be a low altitude angle of collectors from the architectural design. Moreover, hot
water usage and breakdowns of the system were evaluated using detailed analyses of operation data
for three years by considering seasonal factors. These results are expected to give valuable feedback for
the future design and wide use of the systems, as well as update the design baseline. Lastly, compared
to a conventional boiler( = 85%), the system produced a positive environmental effect equivalent to a
reduction in oil use of 71,907 L/year, and reduced carbon emissions equivalent to 50.8 TC and 186.3 TCO2
the pay-back period for the system was expanded 5 years.
2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction 15,135 m2 of the areas in 2003 was increased to 63,775 m2 in 2012,

Solar hot water heating systems have been a signicant energy
conservation measure in buildings, along with improving efciency
of building envelopes and HVAC systems. The systems are expected
to play an important role in residential sectors, especially, by
improving the efciency of conventional boilers since the amount
of energy used for hot water heaters is responsible for more than
20% of the total energy consumption. According to statistical data
from EU, installations of solar hot water heating systems have
been increased gradually even though the growth was not rapid
like before 2008. Especially in 2013, the total installations were
2.14 GWth (approximately 3.05 million m2 ), which was twice the
number of installations compared to ten years ago [1,2]. Similar
trends were seen from South Korea as well; 96,951 m2 of installed
solar collector areas have decreased after 2009, however, an area of
an increase of approximately four times [3]. Currently in South
Korea, energy used for hot water heaters is approximately 17% of
the total energy consumption, and it has increased even during the
summer as the income level increases [4]. Responding to this, the
government in South Korea has encouraged the use of high ef-
ciency boilers, but most of them already have near 90% efciency,
consequently, they need to take additional actions. On the other
hand, the major targets for the solar hot water heating systems
were single-family residences due to the roof systems for such res-
idences being easy to install, and giving enough heating capacity
for hot water demands. However, high-rise multi-family housing
complexes with larger facilities require a different approach in
that additional considerations should be given prior to the installa-
tion phase, such as the location of building services rooms, system
capacity, etc.

2. Literature review

Abbreviations: TCO2 , tonnes of carbon dioxide; TC, tonnes of carbon; HVAC,

heating, ventilation, and air conditioning; EU, European Union; FAR, oor area ratio;
KRW, Korean won; LHV, lower heating value.
Tel.: +82 10 9741 1288.
E-mail addresses: jhyoo@lh.or.kr, rurikon@hanmail.net
In order to install solar hot water heating systems, hot water
demands used for hot water system sizing should be estimated,
and plans for installations and maintenance should be performed.
In general, hot water demands can be estimated by two methods;

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.enbuild.2015.04.037
0378-7788/ 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
 J.-H. Yoo / Energy and Buildings 101 (2015) 5463
the empirical method (i.e., Hunters Method) that calculates the
demand from a number of faucets, and simultaneous uses of hot
water [5], and the method studied by Becker and Stogsdill [6] and
Aye [7], etc. that calculates the demands from the measured hot
water use using estimations from the detailed data of past water
use. However, these methods have limitations in that they do not
reect occupants characteristics, life style changes, etc., and the
estimated consumption may not reect the actual use [8].
In order to resolve these problems, the study by Evartsa and
Swan [9] focused on differences of hot water use by hot water
heater types, number of family member types and residential types,
and estimated hot water use in terms of number of family member
types, utility fees and energy usages. In this study, it was shown how
the households who over-consumed hot water and hot water use
changes by season, resulting in inaccurate statistical data results. In
addition, the difference in hot water use by number of family mem-
bers and their life style changes, was pointed out. For instance, A
baseline of 60 L of hot water use per person was not enough for
a three-person or less household [10]. Yoo [11] also analyzed the
difference in hot water use depending on differences in incomes,
number of family members and awareness of energy use. Accord-
ing to the study, the younger generation from high income families
tend to use more hot water and corresponding energy. This result
implies the sizing of hot water heating systems using the conven-
tional baseline may not be sufcient for hot water demands.
On the other hand, Karteris et al. [12] suggested how solar hot
water heating systems should be installed to be more effective
through the analysis of locations, directions, etc. of buildings dur-
ing the design phase. In addition, Hchem et al. [13] contributed to
the applicability of solar hot water heating systems in high den-
sity buildings by considering building shape and positioning. Chow
et al. [14], Colmenar-Santos et al. [15] and Shi et al. [16] analyzed
the applications of high-rise buildings in terms of technique and
installation methods of the systems, and suggested appropriate
position for the systems in high-rise buildings, where hot water
demands are high comparing to other residential buildings. These
studies expanded the possibilities for the system to be applied to
high-rise multi-family and not only single-family residences, as
well as provide energy efcient measures for existing buildings.
Furthermore, Caglar and Yamal [17], Baniyounes et al. [18] and
Clausse et al. [19] also showed the possibilities to apply the system
for cooling using evacuated tube collectors that could transfer the
high temperature medium to an absorption chiller. These studies
contributed to solar system applications for cooling as well as for
heating and hot water heating in buildings.
Even though all these studies pointed out the signicance of
system capacity estimations through hot water demand estima-
tions, as well as appropriate positions for solar hot water heating
systems, there are no application analyses yet for multi-family res-
idential complexes with large numbers of units. In particular, the
technical and design plan evaluation of solar hot water heating sys-
tem application to complexes with large numbers of units would
give essential feedback for future introduction of the system. In
addition, most system evaluations have been analyzed using simu-
lation programs [2022]. However, this approach does not consider
breakdowns or other troubles in the long-term operation of the
systems in terms of economic analysis [23]. Therefore, in this study
the application of solar hot water heating systems using at-plate
collectors connected to district heating, in 1179 units in fourteen-
building complexes was evaluated. The design planning concept for
the buildings and applications of the systems are described, and the
result for three-year system operation, including seasonal charac-
teristics and breakdowns of the system would be analyzed in order
to nd out the problems in the current systems and suggest future
improvements. Lastly, pay-back period for the systems was also
estimated using the actual historical energy data.
55
3. Description of solar hot water heating systems
3.1. Solar hot water heating systems for multi-family residences
Fig. 1 shows changes in solar hot water heating systems installed
for multi-family residential buildings in South Korea. In the mid
1980s, integrated heating storage systems were installed for hot
water and heating for low-rise multi-families residences. However,
it was not widely used because there were technical problems such
as inefcient solar collectors, damage of evacuated tubes, etc. At
the beginning of the 2000s, solar hot water heating systems for hot
water and heating were examined to see if they could be applied
to the roofs and balconies of high-rise multi-families residences.
However, there were problems as well, including not enough free
area for solar collectors and hot water storage systems that resulted
in a lack of heating capacity. From the mid 2000s, the government in
South Korea began to actively support and encourage construction
companies to apply renewable energy systems. In these circum-
stances, solar hot water heating systems were planned with the hot
water demands for multi-family complexes in mind from the begin-
ning of the architectural design phase. The building complexes were
composed of a large number of household units, so the position of
building services rooms and other considerations were reviewed
from the design planning phase.
3.2. Description of housing complex
Table 1 shows a description of the housing complex discussed
in this study. The complex, located at 37 N longitude and 127 E
latitude, was constructed with reinforced concrete in 2010 and
comprises of 50,613 m2 of site area and 7318 m2 of oor area (i.e.,
oor area ratio of 14%). The complex consists of 14 units (11F-15F)
occupied by 1179 households. 90% of these units face south and
have 1.5H of distance between the units to avoid shading which
would affect the performance of solar collectors, as demonstrated
in the simulation results. The housing complex has a district heat-
ing system for space heating which is designed to supply additional
heat to raise the hot water temperature in case hot water from the
solar collectors fails to provide the sufcient temperature.
3.3. System design
Fig. 2 shows the pipelines for the solar hot water heating sys-
tems. The heat obtained from the at-plate collectors on the roofs
is delivered to the building services room assigned to each unit,
and stored in the 1st and 2nd storage tanks. If the water temper-
ature is above 55 C in the tank, the hot water is supplied to each
household directly, but if the water temperature is below 55 C,
the heat from the district heating system is added to reheat the
hot water, then supplied to the households. The installation of heat
storages and heat exchangers for single-family residences is easier
than for multi-families. Since the size of the systems for multi-
families are large, position of building services room becomes a
signicant matter.
In order to resolve this problem, three building services rooms
(sub #1sub #3) for three or four units of households were planned
as shown in Fig. 3. This strategic planning was expected to shorten
the length of pipelines reducing heat loss, and making it easy to
maintain the systems (sub #1: units #102#105#110/sub #2:
units #106#109/sub #3: units #101#111#114). Fig. 4 shows
the vertical shaft and utility tunnel that transfers heat medium
obtained from solar collectors to underground building services
rooms. The shaft was designed to have several inspection spaces
at constant intervals to manage unexpected problems such as
antifreeze leakage, etc., and the tunnel has a high ceiling so that
people can get in for maintenance.
56 J.-H. Yoo / Energy and Buildings 101 (2015) 5463

Fig. 1. Application examples of solar hot water heating systems to multi-families in South Korea.

Fig. 5 shows the frame construction for the installation of solar
collectors. The gable roof at the south side was covered by 672
sheets (1706 m2 ) of at-plate collectors, each sheet has an area of
2.54 m2 . The collectors were installed facing South at 22 to the
horizontal, and have inspection spaces near or under the roof for
system maintenance. Furthermore, some of them were installed a
distance from the penthouse to prevent shading and with certain
units that do not face South collectors were installed within 45
of the South.
3.4. Estimation of system capacity
3.4.1. Solar heat gain
Table 2 shows climatic conditions, obtained from meteoro-
logical data from the building complex location. Monthly solar
radiation ranged from 11.3 MJ/m2 day to 15.0 MJ/m2 day, and aver-
age annual solar radiation was 13.2 MJ/m2 day. Average monthly
outdoor temperature ranged from 2.4 C (Jan.) to 25.4 C (Aug.), and
the average annual temperature was 12 C. Solar heat gain from the
collectors was estimated from Eq. (1) which applied standardiza-
tion of the solar thermal energy system in South Korea [24]. 6 h/day
of sunshine duration hours and collector efciency ranged from 42%
(Aug.) to 53% (Apr.), etc. were used for the estimation. The obtained
heat was estimated from 303.8 GJ/month (Jan.) to 417.2 GJ/month
(May) for minimum to maximum.
3.4.2. Estimation of hot water demands
There are a number of estimation methods for estimating hot
water demands in general: the method using Hunters curve that
calculates the demands from the number of faucets, and simulta-
neous uses of hot water [5]; the method calculates the demands
from an empirical formula using living area and number of peo-
ple in residence [6,7]. This study used an empirical formula derived
from hot water use patterns from 2.5 million households in South
Korea as shown in Eq. (2), which applied guidelines from the Korea
District Heating Corporation [25]. In this study, 4 h/day is cho-
sen to be the use time to estimate hot water demand. Hot water
was supplied at 55 C while outside water temperature was a xed
15 C, this is appropriate to the hot water use pattern in South
Korea. Table 3 shows the monthly ratio of hot water use that is
attributable to seasonal factors and estimated monthly hot water
demand. These ratios are used for the design of district heating sys-
tems in South Korea. For example, if the peak hot water demand
in January was assumed to be 100%, the hot water demand for July
and August, during which the outdoor temperature would be at
its highest, was assumed to be 35% and 31%, respectively, of this
peak January demand. Under these assumptions, the maximum hot
water demand was estimated to be 1219 GJ in January, the mini-
mum to be 382 GJ in August, and the total hot water demand for
the year to be 9607 GJ.
Q (kJ/h) = (36 + 9 (4N 2)1/2 0.8 (Tset TCW ) 60 4.2 (2)

where N is the number of households, Tset 55(k) is the hot water


31
temperature, TCW 15(k) is the outside water temperature and
Q (kJ/month) = A S Day  (1 )
4 h/day is chosen to be a using time to estimate daily hot water
1 consumption.
= 0.75 4.5 (Ts To ) / (1)
3.4.3. The design details of the system
where A is the solar plate (m2 ), S the average daily solar radiation The design details of the system are given in Table 4. In addition
(kJ/day m2 ),  the max plate efciency (75%),  the heat loss (%), it should be noted that two heat storage tanks were used to prevent
Ts is the plate surface temperature (K), To the outdoor tempera- heat loss during the winter. The number of solar collectors that
ture (K), the average daily solar radiation(kJ/m2 day) and 18.9 should be installed on the roofs was determined by considering
(kJ/m2 day K) is the modifying factor estimating for hourly averaged the declination of collectors to meet 80% of hot water demands.
radiation. Each collector had an area of 2.54 m2 /sheet with 50% efciency. As

Table 1
Description of building complex installed solar hot water heating systems.

Location 37 08 N, 127 04 E

Multi-family Complex Area 36 m2 46 m2 51 m2 59 m2

Number of households 352 453 168 206

Area Total area 50,613 m2

Building area 7318 m2
FAR 14%

Construction structure RC
Constructed year May, 2010
Heating system District heating system
 J.-H. Yoo / Energy and Buildings 101 (2015) 5463 57

Fig. 2. Pipelines for solar hot water heating system.

Table 2
Average solar radiation and ambient temperature near the constructed building complex.

Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec

Solar radiation (MJ/m2 day) 12.1 13.8 13.9 15.0 15.0 14.3 12.9 10.2 11.7 13.7 14.2 11.3
Ambient temperature ( C) 2.4 0.2 4.9 12.2 17.5 21.8 25 25.4 20.2 13.6 6.5 0.2
Solar heat gain (GJ/month) 303.8 335.4 375.3 403.7 417.2 379.8 337.5 229.1 278.3 366.0 375.4 271.4
58 J.-H. Yoo / Energy and Buildings 101 (2015) 5463

Fig. 3. Position of building services rooms.

Fig. 4. Pipes for heat medium returns.

a result, 252 sheets of collectors (i.e., 640 m2 of installation area)
were assigned for the building services room sub #1 which had the
largest number of households, 210 sheets of collectors (i.e., 533 m2
of installation area) were assigned for the building services room
sub #2 and sub #3. The hot water demands for the building services
rooms sub #1, sub #2 and sub #3 were determined to be 3308 MJ/h,
3026 MJ/h, 3126 MJ/h, respectively (i.e., 9460 MJ/h for total), and
the total capacities of heat exchangers designed to have 50 C of
inlet temperature and 40 C of outlet temperature were determined
to be 3629 MJ/h, including 1377 MJ/h, 1134 MJ/h and 1118 MJ/h for
the building services rooms sub #1, sub #2 and sub #3, respectively.
In addition, the pumps for heat exchanger and hot water supply
were designed give 540 /min for the building services room sub
#1, and 455 /min for the building services rooms sub #2 and sub
#3, respectively. This system has 1st and 2nd heat storage tanks to
prevent heat loss during the winter. The volume of the tanks was
designed to have 7800 L for the 1st, and 13,000 L for the 2nd (i.e.,
20,800 L in total) for the building services room sub #1, and 7800 L

Table 3
Monthly ratio of hot water use and hot water demand (N = 1179 households).

Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec

Monthly ratio (%) 100 99 87 76 63 51 35 31 40 54 63 98

Monthly hot water demand (GJ/month) 1219 1101 1072 906 776 608 431 382 477 665 751 1207
 J.-H. Yoo / Energy and Buildings 101 (2015) 5463 59

demand (MJ/h)
Hot water

3308

3026

3126

9460
pump (/Min)
Hot water

1450
455
540

455
medium pump
Heating

(/Min)

1765
545

610

610

Fig. 5. Frame construction for the installation of solar collectors.

Heat exchanger

for the 1st and 2nd (55,600 L in total) for the building services rooms
sub #2 and sub #3, respectively.
(MJ/h)

1377

1134

1118

3629

4. Results of system operation

4.1. Hot water consumption

storage ()

Fig. 6 shows a comparison between the daily hot water con-

Thermal
System

sumption calculated from the design planning phase and the actual
15,600

11,400

19,200

55,600
13,000

20,800
7800

7800

7800

7800

daily hot water use from three-years of operation. The results

show that the actual hot water consumption was 70% to 75%
of the simulated consumption for the cold months of January,
February and December due to the design baseline. The actual
Collector area

hot water consumption during the warm and hot weather from
April to November was higher than the design baseline. This actual
121.824
137.052
137.052
137.052
129.44

129.44
639.58

532.98

129.44
121.82

532.98
137.05
137.05
106.60

106.60
83.75

91.37

consumption was up to 38% higher than the baseline hot water con-
1706
(m2 )

sumption for July. The hot water use for the winter, which was less
than the design baseline, could be due to increased insulation on
the building envelope, life style changes, and changes in the num-
Solar collector

bers of family members, which were not included in the design

Number of

baseline. Overall, the actual total hot water use was 2.7% greater
collector
(Sheets)

than the baseline, while the hot water use for the intermediate and
252

672
210

210

summer months (April to November) was 17% over used against

42
51
54
54
51

54
54
54
48

33
42
51
48
36
households
Number of

1179
436

358

385
82

84

88

75

88
52
90
90
90

90
90
90

80

90
Details of solar hot water heating system installations.

1115F
Story

11F
15F
15F
15F
15F

15F
15F
15F
15F

15F
15F
15F
13F
#111
#112
#113
#114
#102
#103
#104
#105
#110

#106
#107
#108
#109

#101
Total

Total

Total
Unit
service room
Building
Table 4

Total
S-1

S-2

S-3

Fig. 6. Monthly hot water consumption for design and actual hot water use (GJ/day)
(N = 1179 households).
60 J.-H. Yoo / Energy and Buildings 101 (2015) 5463
Fig. 7. Actual monthly heat gain and accumulated heat gain against design baseline
(20112013, N = 1179 households).
the design baseline. The reasons for this could be improvements in
building performance, occupants income and demand for a com-
fort life, and so on were not considered in the design phase even
though they are potentially inuential for hot water use.
4.2. Heat gain and heat consumption
Fig. 7 shows the comparison between the designed and the
actual heat gain as well as accumulated heat gain from the solar
hot water heating system operating during 2011 to 2013. The
Fig. 8. Time-series of hot water use and temperature of 1st and 2nd heat storage tanks (Building services room #1, Unit # 102#105, #110, N = 436) (1) winter (2) summer.
actual annual average heat gain was 52% of the design baseline; the
annual heat gain of 4069 GJ/year from the systems was expected
in the design phase, but 2401 GJ/year for 2011 (i.e., 59% of the
design baseline), 2168 GJ/year for 2012 (i.e., 53% of the design base-
line), 1794 GJ/year for 2013 (i.e., 44% of the design baseline) were
obtained from the systems in actual use. Especially, the collected
heat was 21% less than the design baseline for January, February
and December since the seasonal factors such as snowing and so
on were not considered in design baseline. On the other hand, the
actual heat gain in August had 89.2% to 107.4% of the design base-
line, even though most of the actual heat gain for the intermediate
seasons had 50% to 70% of the design baseline. The reason for this
could be that the altitude angle of the collectors on the roofs was too
low with at 22 to the horizontal, and the design baseline should be
adjusted. Reasons for the actual annual heat gain being remarkably
lower than the design baseline could be as follows: the collectors
were installed at a low altitude angle, and the accurate weather
conditions such as rainfall and snowfall were not considered in the
design baseline.
4.3. Seasonal characteristics
Fig. 8 shows the temperature distribution in 1 min intervals for
the upper side of the 1st and 2nd heat storage tanks of building
services room #1 corresponding to the coldest and hottest days.
The hot water use began from 7:00 am and lasted until 11:00 pm
during the winter, and the total hot water use was 91,010 L/day (i.e.
77 L/household). The hot water use increased from 7:30 am when
 J.-H. Yoo / Energy and Buildings 101 (2015) 5463
Fig. 9. Time-series of temperature of hot water supply and heat consumption (build-
ing services room #1, unit # 102#105, #110, N = 436) (1) winter (2) summer.
50 L/min was used for getting ready for work and school, increased
use lasted until 10 am when 150 L/min was used. In the afternoon,
there was no intensive hot water use like in the morning, but 80 to
130 L/min of hot water was used at 5:00 pm for cooking. In addi-
tion, 220 L/min of hot water use was recorded at 8:09 pm as the
maximum. On the other hand, the solar hot water heating system
was operated for heat gain from 10:00 am to 5:00 pm, and the heat
was stored from 10:00 am to 5:00 pm when hot water use is rel-
atively less. However, since the capacity of the heat storage tanks
was designed to be smaller than hot water use, the 1st storage tank
could keep the high temperature from 30 C to 32 C, but the 2nd
storage tank could not. The 1st storage tank temperature shows that
the tank could meet the hot water demands during 10:00 am to 5:00
pm, when the tank consumed the stored heat and the temperature
dropped by 67 C. The hot water use for the summer shows con-
tinuous low consumption all day. The maximum hot water use was
shown during 7:40 pm to 7:45 pm where 100 to 110 L/min was used
most of the hot water was used during the day with 30 to 50 L/min
begin used. In addition, total hot water use for the summer was
38.5% of total hot water use for the winter with 34,990 L/day being
used. The solar hot water heating system was operated for 10 h a
day from 8:00 am to 6:00 pm, and the heat was stored from 7:00 am.
In addition, the water temperatures in the 1st and 2nd heat storage
tanks show the same temperature distribution except for 8:00 pm
when the hot water consumption was relatively high. The reason
for this could be either of following; the heat stored in heat stor-
age tanks was more than hot water consumption, or the capacity
of the heat storage tanks were too small. When assuming no sig-
nicant problems in the capacity of the heat storage tanks during
61
the winter, it could be concluded that the heat gain from the sys-
tem was too much for the hot water demands during the summer.
Through the analysis, overheating of the system and inefcient use
of the stored heat during the summer could be the problems to be
resolved.
Fig. 9 shows the temperature of hot water supply from the sys-
tem and heat consumption from the stored heat during the summer
and winter. The average temperature of the hot water supply was
11.1 C, and the maximum was 26.2 C during the winter. When
considering the time period of the highest hot water use during
a day, the hot water supply temperatures ranged from 3.9 C to
5.1 C during 7:00 am to 10:00 am, and ranged from 22.7 C to
6.2 C during 7:00 pm to 9:00 pm. Therefore, an auxiliary heat-
ing source for hot water is required for the winter, and if there
was pre-heating for water, energy use could be reduced. The total
heat consumption from solar heat gain was 1930 MJ/day, and this
heat was mostly used for hot water demands after 5:00 pm. For the
summer, the average hot water supply temperature was 35.2 C
and the maximum was 54.3 C, which was a high enough temper-
ature for hot water demands. Therefore, there is no need for an
auxiliary heat source in the summer. Especially, it was found that
the water temperature was 20 C which is 10 C higher than the
general water temperature throughout the operation hours in the
summer seasons. The total heat consumption from solar heat gain
was 3065 MJ/day, and this heat was about 1.6 times the heat for the
winter, and near 93% of the solar heat gain for the design baseline
(i.e., 3307 MJ/day).
4.4. Examples of breakdowns in systems
Fig. 10 shows the breakdowns of the solar hot water heat-
ing system occurring during the three-year operations, including
condensation caused by a damaged evacuated tube, breakdown
in expansion joint and vales, etc. The breakdowns of the system
occurred mostly during the summer when the pipe pressure was
relatively high due to the high temperature of the heat medium and
overheating. Especially, breakdowns in expansion joints and valves
due to the movement of pipelines which connect several buildings
caused heat medium leakage. The leakage of antifreeze would give
the residents unpleasant feelings and also incur additional costs
for repairs. Lack of experience in designing solar hot water heating
systems for a large scale building complex could be the reason for
these problems. The examples of these problems are expected to
give valuable feedback for the future design and wide use of these
systems, as well as updating the design baseline.
4.5. Economic and environmental evaluation
Pay-back period of solar hot water heating systems is a signi-
cant factor for deciding a business case. Table 5 shows the expected
energy savings from the design phase and actual reductions for
three-years of system operation and Fig. 11 shows the pay-back
period after installation and operation of the solar hot water heating
system. Total construction cost for the system was US $ 1,215,909
(1000 Korean Won = 0.91 USD), and 12% average oil price ination,
which was the average from the past 10 years, was applied for the
calculations. In the design phase, annual heat gain was set to be
4069 GJ/year, and the pay-back period was estimated as 7.2 years
with 154,792 L/year oil saving compared to using a conventional
oil boiler (Boiler efciency = 85%, Oil LHV: 36.4 MJ/L). However,
after analyzing three-years of the system operation, the average
heat gain was about 52% of the design baseline with 2122 GJ/year,
and 71,907 L/year of oil reduction compared to the conventional
oil boiler. The pay-back period appears to be 12.1 year, which is 5
years more than expected. On the other hand, this system resulted
in 50.8 TC (Tonnes of carbon) and 186.3 TCO2 (Tonnes of Carbon
62 J.-H. Yoo / Energy and Buildings 101 (2015) 5463

Fig. 10. Breakdown examples of solar hot water heating systems.

Table 5
Positive environmental effect by installation of solar hot water heating system.

Oil reduction (L) Reduction of carbon emission factor (TC) Reduction of CO2 emission factor (TCO2 ) Pay-back period (Year)

Designed value 154,792 109.4 401 7.2

Actual value 71,907 50.8 186.3 12.1

provides feedbacks for the conventional design baseline. The con-

Fig. 11. Pay-back period for actual versus design baseline.
dioxide) reductions compared to using a conventional hot water
heating boiler.
5. Conclusions
This study evaluated the three-year operation of solar hot water
heating systems installed in multi-family building complexes, and
clusions of this study are as follows:
The estimated hot water use shows only a 2.7% difference
compared to the conventional estimation of hot water use
(9607 GJ/year). However, the actual hot water use was 7075%
of the design baseline in January, February and December when
hot water demands were relatively high, and 138% in July and
August. This means that the conventional approach to estimating
hot water usage is useful to assess the total yearly amount of hot
water consumption but it does not necessarily reect the current
consumption patterns and may need to be re-evaluated for more
accurate design of the system in the future.
The average accumulated heat consumption from three-years
of operation is to be estimated as 52% of the design baseline. This
phenomenon tends to occur during the winter season as a result
of the low installation angle of the solar panels attributable to the
architectural design, making the system more susceptible to pre-
cipitation. Furthermore, accurate evaluation of the meteorological
variables was identied as a challenge with the conventional instal-
lation manual which is solely based on average solar radiation. It is,
therefore, necessary to continue to monitor and accumulate data
on other climate variables such as snow fall, degree of cloudiness,
etc.
Breakdowns of the system were experienced during the summer
from damaged valves, expansion joints and so on due to the high
pressure medium in the pipes. The reason for this was identied as
 J.-H. Yoo / Energy and Buildings 101 (2015) 5463
the design strategy for a single unit building being applied to multi-
unit buildings. Therefore, the conventional design strategy should
be updated, and monitoring of the systems operation during the
summer is required as well.
Lastly, the pay-back period for the system was expanded 5 years
from 7.2 year to 12.1 year according to the results of three-years
of operation. The reason for this was found to be that the systems
design did not reect the building characteristics, especially the hot
water demands for the winter. However, compared to the conven-
tional boiler ( = 85%), the system brought a positive environmental
effect equivalent to 71,907 L/year of oil reductions, 50.8 TC (Tonnes
of Carbon) and 186.3 TCO2 (Tonnes of Carbon dioxide) of reductions.
Acknowledgements
The author would like to show their appreciation to Dr. Michael
Barclay, who provided help and useful discussion on this paper.
The author is also grateful to all the reviewers for their detailed
and constructive comments, which have greatly helped to improve
this paper.
References
[1] International Energy Agency (IEA), Key World Energy Statistics, IEA, Paris,
France, 2012.
[2] International Energy Agency (IEA), Worldwide Trends in Energy Use and Ef-
ciency, IEA, Paris, France, 2008.
[3] Korea Energy Economics Institute, Yearbook of Energy Statistics, Korea Energy
Economics Institute, 2013.
[4] Land and Housing Institute, A Study of Analyzing Energy Demand and
Trend for Residential Sector, Land and Housing Institute, South Korea,
2012.
[5] Roy B. Hunter, Methods of Estimating Loads in Plumbing Systems, in: Building
Materials and Structures Report BMS 65, United States Department of Com-
merce, 1940.
[6] B. Becker, K. Stogsdill, Development of a hot water use data base, ASHRAE Trans.
96 (2) (1990) 422427.
[7] Lu Aye, W.W.S. Charters, C. Chaichana, Solar heat pump for domestic hot water,
Sol. Energy 73 (3) (2002) 169175.
[8] K. Yuasa, J.H. Yoo, H. Yoshino, K. Hasegawa, Energy saving potential of low-
impact life style in residential buildings, J. Environ. Eng. 74 (642) (2009)
10191025 (Architectural Institute of Japan) [in Japanese].
63
[9] John C. Evartsa, Lukas G. Swan, Domestic hot water consumption estimates for
solar thermal system sizing, Energy Build. 58 (2013) 5865.
[10] Cara D. Beal, Edoardo Bertone, Rodney A. Stewart, Evaluating the energy and
carbon reductions resulting from resource-efcient, Energy Build. 55 (2012)
422432.
[11] J.H. Yoo, A research on the consumers consciousness for improvement of
residential energy consumption, J. Archit. Inst. Korea 29 (2009) 276282 (Archi-
tectural Institute of Korea) [in Korean].
[12] M. Karteris, Th. Slini, A.M. Papadopoulos, Urban solar energy potential in
Greece: a statistical calculation model of suitable built roof areas for photo-
voltaic, Energy Build. 62 (2013) 459468.
[13] Caroline Hachem, Paul Fazio, Andreas Athienitis, Solar optimized residential
neighborhoods: evaluation and design methodology, Sol. Energy 95 (2013)
4264.
[14] Tin-Tai Chow, Zhaoting Dong, Lok-Shun Chan, Kwong-Fai Fong, Yu Bai, Perfor-
mance evaluation of evacuated tube solar domestic hot water systems in Hong
Kong, Energy Build. 43 (2011) 34673474.
[15] Antonio Colmenar-Santos, Julio Vale-Vale, David Borge-Diez, Ricardo Requena-
Prez, Solar thermal systems for high rise buildings with high consumption
demand: case study for a 5 star hotel in Sao Paulo, Brazil, Energy Build. 69
(2014) 481489.
[16] Jie Shi, Wei Su, Mingya Zhu, Huaning Chen, Yiqun Pan, Shui Wan, Yawei Wang,
Solar water heating system integrated design in high-rise apartment in China,
Energy Build. 58 (2013) 1926.
[17] Ahmet Caglar, Cemil Yamal, Performance analysis of a solar-assisted heat
pump with an evacuated tubular collector for domestic heating, Energy Build.
54 (2012) 2228.
[18] Ali M. Baniyounes, M.G. Rasul, M.M.K. Khan, Experimental assessment of a solar
desiccant cooling system for an institutional building in subtropical Queens-
land, Australia, Energy Build. 62 (2013) 7886.
[19] M. Clausse, K.C.A. Alam, F. Meunier, Residential air conditioning and heating
by means of enhanced solar collectors coupled to an adsorption system, Sol.
Energy 82 (2008) 885892.
[20] Eleni Ampatzi, Ian Knight, Robin Wiltshire, The potential contribution of solar
thermal collection and storage systems to meeting the energy requirements of
North European Housing, Sol. Energy 91 (2013) 402421.
[21] Robert H. Crawford, Graham J. Treloar, Net energy analysis of solar and con-
ventional domestic hot water systems in Melbourne, Australia, Sol. Energy 91
(2004) 159163.
[22] A.I. Anarbaev, R.A. Zakhidov, N.I. Orlova, Comparing the operational charac-
teristics of some types of solar collectors and water heating systems in the
conditions of Uzbekistan, Sol. Energy 43 (2007) 812.
[23] Alireza Hobbi, Kamran Siddiqui, Optimal design of a forced circulation solar
water heating system for a residential unit in cold climate using TRNSYS, Sol.
Energy 83 (2009) 700714.
[24] Korea Institute of Energy Research, Standardization of the Solar Thermal Energy
System, Korea Institute of Energy Research, 2012.
[25] Korea District Heating Corporation, Standard for Hot Water Demand of Resi-
dential Sector, Korea District Heating Corporation, 2009.