Experimental research on a novel sun shading & solar energy collecting coupling device for inpatient building in hot summer and cold winter climate zone in China

According to characteristics of solar radiation in hot summer and cold winter climate zone in China, and hot water high demand and cooling load of air conditioning of the inpatient departments in summer, a novel equipment integrating shading and domestic water generation is proposed and analyzed by theoretical and experimental methods, which consists of four parts: Arc sun shading reflecting plates, vacuum heat collecting tubes, domestic water tank and cold water supply unit. An inpatient department located in Changsha city is selected as the experimental site. Three kinds of shading and collecting elements were tested by experiments, key design parameters, such as the cross section size of the shading reflector, the solar radiation intensity, the circulating water flow were evaluated. The results showed that: this novel equipment can absorb 2.5-2.8 times heat when compared with traditional vacuum tube solar collector; in the case study, 100% hot water demand of hospital can be met in summer, 31.7% in transitional seasons and 10.8% in winter; the annual air conditioning energy consumption can be reduced by about 2.7% and the annual electricity savings are estimated.