Comparative study of a directly cooled PV water heating system to a naturally cooled module in South Africa

Efficiency of a photovoltaic (PV) solar module is largely affected by high temperatures. High temperatures reduce the efficiency of a module, while lower temperatures contribute towards a higher efficiency. If a module operates under high temperatures it degrades fast and its output and lifespan gets altered. Higher conversion efficiencies were obtained on the directly cooled module as compared to the naturally cooled module. The directly cooled module operated at low temperatures for the entire sunny day reaching a maximum temperature of 34.34°C while the naturally cooled module reached a maximum of 58.64°C. A maximum thermal efficiency of 15.26% was obtained from an un-insulated system.