PV Gap

Randy Said:

BEST ANSWER 10 POINTS!!! HELP!!!! How many showers per day could be supported by a single hot water panel?

We Answered:

A square meter of area in the summer sun puts out an average of 1000 to 1100 watts per square meter.

So if you ran it for 5 hours (5hr *3600 = 18,000 sec)and had a highly efficient solar panel heater which might capture almost all of that heat, or 5 kWh of power.

Most water coming into the house is about 60F (or 15C) and very comfortable shower water would be at about 95F (or 35C).

If you have 1000 watts = 1000 J/ s * 18,000 seconds = 18,000,000 Joules of power over 5 hours of time.

To raise water from 60F to 95F = 4.186J/g C *20C 8 1000g = 84,000 Joules for every kilogram of water

18,000,000 J / 84000 = 214 kg of hot water available at 95F

A gallon of water is 3.79 kg. So 214 kg / 3.79 kg = 56.5 gallons of hot water

Shower heads are rated at 2.2 gpm (at 60 psi )

If you take 2 showers , you get 13 minutes a shower: (56.5g / 2.2g ) / 2 = 13 minute

If you take 3 showers, you get 8.5 minute per shower : (56.5g / 2.2g ) / 3 = 8.5m

Clyde Said:

10 POINTS!!! HELP!!!! How many showers per day could be supported by a single hot water panel?

We Answered:

There is not enough information in your question to formulate an answer.
Depends on the latitude of the panel.
Depends on the person taking the shower.
Some people take a 5 minute shower, some take a 20 minute shower.
Also depends on how hot the shower water is set to, some like a cool shower, some like it hot.
You will need to set more parameters to your question.
Is there a hot water storage tank in the system?

Wingman