Fossil fuels are an exhaustible resource on Earth, and their use pollutes the environment massively. The population of the planet has grown a lot, and for the production of domestic hot water, to ensure a decent standard of living, it is necessary to consume increasing quantities of fossil fuels. The very high level of greenhouse gases released into the atmosphere leads to an increase in average of annual temperature and climate change. Climate change is manifested by the melting of the ice caps, which has the consequence of increasing the level of the seas and oceans. Climate change also leads to extreme weather events such as floods, heat waves or the appearance of arid areas.
Risks to human health have increased through deaths caused by heat or by changing the way some diseases are spread. Risks also exist for flora and wildlife due to rapid climate change.Many species of animals migrate, and other species of animals and plants are likely to disappear.
Climate change also leads to costs for society and the economy due to damage to property and infrastructure, which have been more than 90 billion euros in the last 30 years, just because of the floods.
In order to reduce the effects of environmental pollution, ecological energy production solutions need to be expanded.
The article presents the creation of an experimental stand of a Solar - TLUD stove combined system for the production of domestic hot water in a sustainable way. TLUD is the acronym for "Top-Lit UpDraft". The advantage of the combined heat system is that it can provide thermal energy both during the day and at night. If the atmospheric conditions are unfavorable (clouds, fog) and do not allow the water to be heated only with the solar panel, TLUD gas stove can be used to supplement the energy. The TLUD stove has low Carbon Monoxide (CO) and Particulate Matter (PM) emissions. After gasification, about 10% of the carbon contained in the biomass is thermally stabilized and can be used as a "biochar" in agriculture or it can be burnt completely, resulting in very little ash.
The stand is composed of a solar thermal panel, a TLUD stove, a boiler for hot water storage and an automation system with circulation pumps and temperature sensors. To record the experimental results, a data acquisition board was used, with which data were recorded from a series of temperature and flow transducers located in the installation.
Experimental results include diagrams for temperature variation, available energy and heat accumulated in the boiler.