Technical and Economic Performance Analysis of Utilization of Solar Energy in Indoor Swimming Pools, An Application

In this study, technical and economic performance analyses are conducted in order to determine the optimum collector surface area for indoor swimming pools. Required heat and economical conditions are taken into consideration while performing these evaluations. A brief summary of solar energy source and heat transfer equations for the Olympic pools are given. An Olympic swimming pool is assumed to be in different cities, and energy losses are calculated. For our sample Olympic pool, convective heat loss obtained is −3.86 kW and evaporative heat loss obtained is 265 kW. Total heat loss always maximum in January from 384 kW to 455.1 kW. Solar energy gain (assumption 1000 m² collector area) and energy gain from boiler for different cities are calculated as maximum solar energy gain in July between 160 and 175 kW and minimum in January between 54.9 and 82 kW. High investment costs for solar power systems are responsible for low value of the reduction rate. Also, according to the energy demand and economical conditions, technical evaluations are performed in order to obtain optimum surface collector area, and economical analyses are conducted using unified cost method.