ResearchArticle
Effects of Different Target Solar Fractions on Providing Heat
Required for Space Heating, Sanitary Hot Water, and Swimming
Pool in Iran: A Case Study in Cold Climate
Nastaran Saberi Shahmarvandi,
1
Fateme Shahrokh Ghahfarokhi,
1
Zahra Delshad Chermahini,
1
Atefeh Faramarzi,
1
Alireza Raisi,
1
Reza Alayi ,
2
and Ahmad Tahmasebi
3
1
Department of Biomedical Engineering, Shahrekord Branch, Islamic Azad University, Shahrekord, Iran
2
Department of Mechanics, Germi Branch, Islamic Azad University, Germi, Iran
3
Research and Development Department, Pars Regulator Company, Tehran, Iran
Correspondence should be addressed to Reza Alayi; reza.alayi@yahoo.com
Received 10 September 2021; Revised 11 February 2022; Accepted 16 February 2022; Published 7 March 2022
Academic Editor: Yongping Chen
Copyright © 2022 Nastaran Saberi Shahmarvandi et al. is is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons
AttributionLicense,whichpermitsunrestricteduse,distribution,andreproductioninanymedium,providedtheoriginalworkis
properly cited.
Due to limited fossil fuel resources, population growth, and the need to save energy and prevent the emission of pollutants, solar
heatingisofgreatimportanceasastrategicsolution.Duetothesecases,inthepresentwork,forthefirsttime,theuseofflatplate
solar water heaters (SWHs) in Shahrekord located in the cold climate of Iran has been studied. e aim is to supply heating for
space, sanitary hot water, and swimming pool of a residential apartment. Also, technical-economic-energy-environmental
analyses have been done. ree low, medium, and high solar fraction scenarios have been selected for evaluations, and one-year
dynamic analysis has been performed by TSOL 2018 commercial software. e required climatic data have been extracted by
Meteonorm 7.3 software. e results showed that in most cases of heat supply, i.e., high solar fraction scenario, the percentage of
solar heat supply for sanitary hot water, space heating, and swimming pool is 97.8%, 22.3%, and 44.3%, respectively, and the total
solar fraction is 41%. Also, in this case, the release of more than 4 tons of CO
2
pollutants has been prevented. Energy balance
diagramsfordifferentscenariosshowedthat60%oflossesareopticalandthermalandalsothehighestrateoflosseswasrelatedto
theswimmingpool.elowestcostofheatgeneratedandthelowestpaybacktimewere$0.028/kWhand11.4years,respectively,
which were related to the high solar fraction scenario.
1. Introduction
Energy consumption reflects the socioeconomic growth rate
of any country today [1]. Energy from fossil fuels produces a
large number of greenhouse gases, which is the main cause
of global warming [2–4]. e effects of global warming can
be seen in almost every part of the world [5]. It is predicted
that if the current emission rate continues, global warming
will increase by 1.5
°
C at an average surface temperature
between 2030 and 2052 [6–8]. Dealing with the undesirable
effects of climate change is the biggest concern of society
around the world [9–12]. A possible solution is to take
benefit of renewable technologies and replace fossil tech-
nologies with them [13–17]. Among all renewable energy
sources, solar energy is widely available and is present in
almost all parts of the world [18–23]. In recent decades,
global solar thermal capacity has increased sharply and is
now widely used around the world to provide heating and
cooling [24–28]. In 2019, solar heating systems generated
479GW of heat, equivalent to 43 million tons of oil saved,
which prevented the release of 138 million tons of CO
2
(Figure 1) [30].
Figure 2 illustrates the geographical breakdown of the
cumulatively installed solar water heating capacity by the
Hindawi
Journal of Engineering
Volume 2022, Article ID 2720057, 10 pages
https://doi.org/10.1155/2022/2720057