Solar Rating & Certification Corporation - Commercial Systems

COMMERCIAL SYSTEMS

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Commercial Solar Water Heating System Guideline Recommendations

There is a renewed interest in large commercial systems. In light of this, SRCC offers certification of commercial solar water heating systems under its OG-300 certification program. In addition, SRCC has reviewed numerous documents that can serve as guidelines and a good starting point for those wanting information on commercial system design, installation, and the development of operation and maintenance manuals.

SRCC has developed this web site to provide interested parties guidelines for the design and installation of large commercial solar water heating systems. Also included are guidelines on developing system operation and maintenance manuals.

ASHRAE Solar Heating Systems Guidelines

The three ASHRAE solar system guideline documents listed below are the most comprehensive commercial solar system guidelines available. The documents deal with both water and space heating, but the intent of SRCC is to make these available primarily for the design of water heating systems.

Since these are rather large manuals, specific sections within the manuals have been identified for the ease of the user. The manuals and manual sections are provided in pdf format. The documents provided on this site are scanned versions of the original manuals. Because of this, some files can be rather large. They can be either opened using Adobe Reader (pdf file format) or saved directly to a hard drive and opened at your convenience. To save a file to your hard drive, click the right mouse button and select "Save Target As ..." in Internet Explorer, and "Save Link Target As..." in Netscape.

Please note that ASHRAE has generously provided SRCC permission to post these ASHRAE guidelines on this web site. ASHRAE owns the publication rights to these documents. Additional distribution in print or digital form of these ASHRAE documents is not permitted. They may be accessed for personal use only from the SRCC web site. Information about other use of these documents can be obtained by visiting www.ashrae.org/permissions.

Active Solar Heating System Design Manual
This manual is intended to be used in designing commercial and industrial solar energy systems for service water heating. The manual consists of five sections. Numerous forms and checklists are provided which can be used in the actual design development process. For ease of downloading, the sections are provided in individual pdf formats. The sections are:
- Introduction, Table of Contents, Executive Summary
  Provides an introduction and overview of the manual.
- Sec 1 Conceptual Analysis
  1.1 Overview
  1.2 Determining the project goals
  1.3 Site survey
  1.4 System selection
  1.5 Performance/cost study
  1.6 Final conceptual analysis summary
  Detailed worksheets are provided for the above analysis.
- Sec 2 Feasibility Study
  2.1 Overview
  2.2 Application review
  2.3 Sizing/performance analysis
  2.4 System design description
  Checklists are provided to assist the user in developing the feasibility study.
- Sec 3 Detailed Design
  Due to the large size of this section, it has been broken down into separate files for the specific sections.
  
  3.1-3.2 Table of Contents, Overview, and Schematics
  
  3.3 Collector subsystem (Liquid system)
  
  3.4 Storage Subsystem (Liquid)
  
  3.5 Instrumentation and Control Subsystem (Liquid)
  
  3.6 Collector Subsystem (Air System)
  
  3.7 Storage Subsystem (Air)
  
  3.8 Instrumentation and Control Subsystem (Air)
  
  3.9 - 3.10 Performance Verification & Design review
  
  Specification worksheets for completing the above are included.
- Sec 4 Preparation of Design and Construction Package
  This construction package combines the output of the Detailed Design stage and is to serve as the basis for contractors to bid on the project and to construct the system.
  4.1 Overview
  4.2 Design package
  4.3 Construction package
- Sec 5 Lessons Learned
  Lists various problems commonly found in solar systems that are related to design mistakes. Provides a quick reference by specific components.
  5.1 Overview
  5.2 System sizing
  5.3 System protection
  5.4 Components
- Example System Design
  (Provides an example solar system design following the guidelines of the design manual. The example is intended to show how the equations, figures, checklists, worksheets, and evaluations are used in the design process.
  1.0 Conceptual analysis
  2.0 Feasibility study
  3.0 Detailed design
Active Solar Heating Systems Installation Manual
This manual provides guidelines on the installation of large commercial and industrial solar energy systems for water heating. The installation practices discussed include pre-construction, construction, system checkout, and startup recommendations. Numerous forms and checklists are provided.
- Sec 1 Introduction, TOC, Executive Summary
- Sec 2 Review System Design & Sec 3 Design Modifications
- Sec 4 Permits and Approvals & Sec 5 Material Ordering
- Sec 6 Installation
- Sec 7 Checkout and Start-Up
- Sec 8 Operational Testing
- Sec 9 Performance Testing & Sec 10 As-Builts
- Appendix
  List of design and installation drawings
  Drawing review checklist
  Component specification checklists
Guide for Preparing Active Solar Heating Systems Operation and Maintenance Manuals
The purpose of this manual is to assists system designers in the preparation of operation and maintenance manuals. It also describes the procedures that represent a full coverage of the major elements in operating and maintaining solar systems. An example of a system operation and maintenance manual is included. The total manual is provided in one pdf file
- Sec 1 Operation
  1.1 Overview
  1.2 System description
  1.3 Modes of operation
  1.4 Performance evaluation
  1.5 Safety considerations
  1.6 Operator training
- Sec 2 Maintenance
  2.1 Overview
  2.2 Maintenance personnel training
  2.3 Preventive maintenance
  2.4 Troubleshooting and corrective action
  2.5 Repair/replace criteria
  2.6 Repair
  2.7 Re acceptance test
  Example system operation and maintenance manual
- Example system operation and maintenance manual (Appendix)
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FSEC Considerations and Recommendations

These recommendations were developed after in-depth inspections and modifications of solar water heating systems installed on public schools in Florida. The following excerpts are from the FSEC publications "Operation and Maintenance Manual for Large Solar Water Heating Systems for Florida Schools" and "A Survey of Solar Water Heating Systems on Florida Schools." These documents are provided in pdf format.

System Design and Installation Considerations
This excerpt was written primarily for architects and engineers who design systems for new schools or additions to schools. It is a compilation of suggestions for avoiding design and installation problems. This document includes the following:
- Preliminary Design Decisions
  Load determination
  Solar system type
  Solar system component sizing
  Installation and operation
- Design and Installation Details
  Design for installation
  Freeze protection
  Collector subsystem
  Distribution subsystem
  Control subsystem
  Storage subsystem
  Design for operation (manuals, instrumentation, labeling and identification, accessibility)
Recommendations
This document is a summary of the most important suggestions and recommendations on ways to overcome problems that the authors encountered during the inspection of numerous large commercial solar water heating systems. These recommendations deal with system design and installation. These are lessons learned that should not be repeated.
System Design and Installation
Collector subsystem
Control subsystem
Storage subsystem
Distribution and piping subsystems
Instrumentation
Freeze protection methods
Operations and Maintenance

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