Solar heat use for hot water and heating preparation in a residential building

One way to reduce CO2 emissions, help to the global sustainable development and reduce the global warming is the use of clean and renewable energies. One of them is the solar energy, in fact this is one of the natural sources with more energetic potential. Due to this several prestigious entities and governments are promoting and improving the development and use of this kind of energy. For example, the Spanish government approved a law in March of 2006, named “Código Técnico de la Edificación”. This regulation is mandatory, and set the minimum quality requirements that residential buildings must have. One of them forces that new and renovated buildings have to produce part the energy demand for heating water by means of a solar thermal system. The project is going to be carried out in an old building which is being renovated. The aim of this thesis is to design and calculate the installation of a solar system for covering part of the sanitary hot water in a residential building placed in Ávila, Spain. The calculation includes dimension the system, to select the components and to obtain the solar annual coverage. After this, check that the obtained solar annual coverage is greater than the minimum one set by the law. The obtained results are the energy, fuel and money saves, as well as the initial investment and the payback of the installation.Ingeniería Industria