Performance and systems technology of newly developed storage collectors

A very promising approach to reduce the specific system costs for solar domestic hot water (DHW) systems is to integrate the hot water storage tank and the absorber into the unit. The newly developed storage collector consists of only a few components, such as the housing, the water tank and a transparent cover. The outer surface of the storage tank serves simultaneously as the absorber. In order to benefit from the cost reduction associated with industrial mass production, the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems has developed a storage collector in close co-operation with an industrial partner. Its construction, performance and systems technology will be presented in this paper