Reliability and Maintainability Study of Selected Solar Energy System Components in the Solar in Federal Buildings Program: Final Subcontract Report
(English)
Please choose your delivery country and your customer group
The eight Solar in Federal Buildings Program (SFBP) solar energy systems described in this report were instrumented for automated data monitoring for system reliability and performance. Solar system pumps and solar system controllers were monitored for 3 to 9 months to provide data on failures, duty cycle, and system control setpoints. There was one pump failure, which was not enough to provide failure statistics. Controller failure rates were very high; 50% failed during the monitoring program. Controller drift was not as easily determined. The other most failure-prone component was the automatic flow control valves, 20% of which failed during the monitoring period. Only 0.7% of the collector panels were damaged by wind and freezing. The F-CHART model was used to predict failure-free performance; actual performance was compared to F-CHART predictions. It was concluded that failures that are corrected quickly have no significant effect on long-term performance. (ERA citation 12:013398)