Experimental validation of TRNSYS model of an indirect solar water heater with forced circulation in various weather: Application to Rabat (Morocco)

In this work, we validated a TRNSYS (TRaNsient SYstem Simulation tool) for forced circulation solar heating systems with flat collectors under different weather and operating conditions using data from a field trial to Rabat, Morocco. Our result shows that the system heated water only using solar energy and was tested for four days. A comparison of modeled and measured data resulted in percentage mean absolute errors for collector temperature, the usefully collected energy by FPC, the average temperature of the tank, and the energy stored in the tank of 12.5%,2.6%, 1.96%, and 9.19%1 respectively. The model overestimated the energy stored in the tank by 4.4% and underestimated the collector temperature, the usefully collected energy by FPC, and the average temperature of the tank by -2%, -2.2%, and -1.9%, respectively.