Design considerations for residential solar heating and cooling systems utilizing evacuated tube solar collectors

As solar heating systems become a commercial reality, greater efforts are now being employed to incorporate solar cooling components in order to obtain a complete solar heating and cooling system and thus take advantage of the cost-effectiveness of year-round use of the solar equipment. Because of the exceptional performance and high efficiency of evacuated tube solar collectors, these advanced collectors are receiving considerable attention for use in solar heating and cooling systems. While improved performance is readily obtained with these sophisticated solar collectors, there are also numerous difficulties and problems associated with their use in a solar system. This paper addresses many of the design considerations which must be included in any realistic solar system design. Most of the considerations presented here are based on the experience gained in the design and performance of the solar heating and cooling systems for CSU Solar Houses I-IV.