Solar Pool Economic Calculator

Developed by D. Menicucci, Feb 2005

Input Data:
Domestic hot water load in facility 2 MMBTU/month
Collector footprint fill factor 60%
Collector area 4000 sq feet
Boiler efficiency 65% NOTES
Cost of solar installation $15.00 per sq ft of collector Yellow cells are inputs
SRCC Y intercept for efficiency equation 0.761 Green cells are computations
SRCC slope for efficiency equation -2.180

Computations:
Area footprint required for collectors 6667 sq feet
Dimension of side of square area for collectors 81.6 feet
Total cost of solar installation $60,000
Solar Fraction (% of load served by solar system) 52%

Total facility Pool energy Solar Solar Amb Temp Amb Temp Pool Product'n Ave Hourly Solar Solar Solar
Gas usage Gas Usage Resource Resource during sol during sol Temp Hours Solar Rad to heat Production Production
Date (MMBTU) (MMBTU) (kWh/met2/dy) (MMBTU/ft2/dy) produc. C produc. F F Sunlight BTU/ft2 efficiency (MMBTU/ft2) (MMBTU)
Jan 680 678 5.9 1.864E-03 14.2 57.6 82.0 8.3 225 52% 9.770E-04 119.2
Feb 636 634 6.4 2.022E-03 16.2 61.1 82.0 9.1 223 56% 1.125E-03 137.2
Mar 478 476 6.6 2.085E-03 18.8 65.8 82.0 10.0 209 59% 1.234E-03 150.5
Apr 269 267 6.8 2.148E-03 23.1 73.5 83.0 11.0 196 65% 1.407E-03 171.7
May 165 163 6.4 2.022E-03 27.8 82.0 83.0 11.8 171 75% 1.512E-03 184.4
Jun 2 0 6.1 1.927E-03 33.2 91.8 83.0 12.3 157 88% 1.700E-03 207.4
Jul 2 0 5.6 1.769E-03 33.9 92.9 84.0 12.1 147 89% 1.581E-03 192.9
Aug 2 0 6.0 1.895E-03 32.6 90.7 84.0 11.3 167 85% 1.607E-03 196.1
Sep 64 62 6.6 2.085E-03 30.5 86.9 83.0 10.4 201 80% 1.675E-03 204.3
Oct 255 253 6.8 2.148E-03 25.2 77.4 83.0 9.4 229 71% 1.519E-03 185.3
Nov 550 548 6.2 1.959E-03 18.9 65.9 82.0 8.5 230 61% 1.193E-03 145.5
Dec 786 784 5.6 1.769E-03 14.5 58.1 82.0 8.1 219 52% 9.259E-04 113.0
Yrly Total 3889 3865 Note: Goto Note: Goto Note: Goto 2007.5
worksheet worksheet worksheet This value
Input guide Input guide Input guide auto-inputed
for inputs for inputs for inputs to worksheet
cashflow
Twenty Year Cash Flow Analysis

Assumptions: Deprection schedule: 7 years

System cost (from Sheet Solar perf): $60,000 Sales tax rate: 5.5%
Discount rate: 6% Annual O&M factor: 4.0% of capital costs
Green Energy Credit Sale $1.00 per MMBTU Escalation of Annual O&M cost: 2.0% per year
Green Tag Sale $1,000 (One time sale) Performance degradation: 0.3% per year
Total Tax Credits: 10% of capital cost one time Sales price of energy produced: $7.00 per MMBTU
Income tax rate: 35% Escalation of energy sales price: 0.3% per year
Taxes and insurance 10% of capital cost per year % of capital cost financed 50.0%
Escalation of Taxes/insurance 1% per year Finacing rate 7.0% per year

Computations:
Internal rate of return: 18.7% Approx Simple payback: 4 years
Levelized energy cost: $6.56 per MMBTU Approx. Discounted Payback: 4 years

Green Present Discounted Annual

Capital Sales Credit/tag Tax Effect Financing Taxes and Cashflow O&M Total Worth Total Production
Year Capital Tax Sale of Deprec Costs Tax credits energy sales Cost Cashflow Factor Cashflow (MMBTU)
1 $30,000 $1,650 $1,120 $3,000 $2,832 $0 $14,088 $2,400 $18,674 1.00 $18,674 2,008
2 $0 $0 $120 $3,000 $2,832 $6,060 $14,123 $2,448 $5,903 0.94 $5,569 2,002
3 $0 $0 $120 $3,000 $2,832 $6,121 $14,158 $2,497 $5,829 0.89 $5,188 1,997
4 $0 $0 $120 $3,000 $2,832 $6,182 $14,194 $2,547 $5,753 0.84 $4,830 1,992
5 $0 $0 $119 $3,000 $2,832 $6,244 $14,229 $2,598 $5,675 0.79 $4,495 1,988
6 $0 $0 $119 $3,000 $2,832 $6,306 $14,265 $2,650 $5,596 0.75 $4,182 1,983
7 $0 $0 $119 $3,000 $2,832 $6,369 $14,300 $2,703 $5,515 0.70 $3,888 1,978
8 $0 $0 $118 $0 $2,832 $6,433 $14,336 $2,757 $2,433 0.67 $1,618 1,973
9 $0 $0 $118 $0 $2,832 $6,497 $14,372 $2,812 $2,349 0.63 $1,474 1,968
10 $0 $0 $118 $0 $2,832 $6,562 $14,408 $2,868 $2,264 0.59 $1,340 1,963
11 $0 $0 $117 $0 $2,832 $6,628 $14,444 $2,926 $2,176 0.56 $1,215 1,958
12 $0 $0 $117 $0 $2,832 $6,694 $14,480 $2,984 $2,087 0.53 $1,100 1,953
13 $0 $0 $117 $0 $2,832 $6,761 $14,516 $3,044 $1,997 0.50 $992 1,948
14 $0 $0 $117 $0 $2,832 $6,829 $14,553 $3,105 $1,904 0.47 $893 1,943
15 $0 $0 $116 $0 $2,832 $6,897 $14,589 $3,167 $1,810 0.44 $800 1,938
16 $0 $0 $116 $0 $2,832 $6,966 $14,625 $3,230 $1,714 0.42 $715 1,934
17 $0 $0 $116 $0 $2,832 $7,035 $14,662 $3,295 $1,616 0.39 $636 1,929
18 $0 $0 $115 $0 $2,832 $7,106 $14,699 $3,361 $1,516 0.37 $563 1,924
19 $0 $0 $115 $0 $2,832 $7,177 $14,735 $3,428 $1,414 0.35 $495 1,919
20 $0 $0 $115 $0 $2,832 $7,249 $14,772 $3,496 $1,310 0.33 $433 1,914
Total $30,000 $1,650 $3,353 $21,000 $56,636 $126,114 $288,548 $58,314 $40,187 $21,753 39,211
Guide to Estimating the Hours of Sunlight to Input to the Performance Model (Solar Perf Workshee
Go to this site to compute the Sunrise/Sunset times for your location:

Month Sunrise Sunset Hrs of Sun Hrs sun

Jan 7:25 AM 5:42 AM 10:17 8.3
Feb 7:06 AM 6:10 AM 11:04 9.1
Mar 6:34 AM 6:32 AM 11:58 10.0
Apr 5:54 AM 6:53 AM 12:59 11.0
May 5:26 AM 7:15 AM 13:49 11.8
Jun 5:17 AM 7:32 AM 14:15 12.3
Jul 5:28 AM 7:31 AM 14:03 12.1
Aug 5:48 AM 7:08 AM 13:20 11.3
Sep 6:08 AM 6:29 AM 12:21 10.4
Oct 6:27 AM 5:51 AM 11:24 9.4
Nov 6:53 AM 5:23 AM 10:30 8.5
Dec 7:17 AM 5:21 AM 10:04 8.1

Guide to Estimating the Ambient Temperature to Input and Solar Radiation Data
Go to this NREL site to Fetch the Temperature Data for you Site:
Go to the section labeled PDF formats/Individual PDFs and select your city.
Solar radiation data are in the same table. Select data for flat-plate collectors with tilt close to the the one that is planned

Daily
Max
Month Temp C Temp C Ave temp
Jan 17.7 10.7 14.2
Feb 19.9 12.4 16.15
Mar 22.7 14.8 18.75
Apr 27.3 18.8 23.05
May 32.2 23.3 27.75
Jun 37.6 28.8 33.2
Jul 37.4 30.3 33.85
Aug 36 29.2 32.6
Sep 34.1 26.9 30.5
Oct 29.1 21.3 25.2
Nov 22.6 15.1 18.85
Dec 17.9 11.1 14.5

Guide to Obtaining the Y intercept and Slope for the collector

Go to this SRCC website and seek the OG100 values for unglazed collectors. Open the .pdf file.
Find the section that lists all of the unglazed collectors by manufacturer (around page 12)
The Y intercept and slope (BTU-F) will be included for certified unglazed collectors.
Model (Solar Perf Worksheet)

These values
auto-inputed
to model Sunrise/Sunset computer
8.3
9.1
10.0
11.0
11.8
12.3
12.1
11.3
10.4
9.4
8.5
8.1

NREL Solar Data

to the the one that is planned

These values
auto-inputed
to model
14.2
16.2
18.8
23.1
27.8
33.2
33.9
32.6
30.5
25.2
18.9
14.5

SRCC ratings