智慧型熱水桶之實作與研究

IMPLEMENTATION AND RESEARCH OF INTELLIGENT WATER HEATING TANK

第一、二代太陽能熱水桶設計不理想，當我們使用熱水時，一邊消耗熱水的同時會一邊補入冷水，造成儲水桶內熱水溫度明顯下降，必須另外使用電熱棒進行加熱，針對此缺點，我們先前曾設計出第三代太陽能熱水桶來改善，它在桶內增加一「可移動分隔盤」（The Movable Dividing Disk）來完全隔離熱水與冷水，使整個儲水桶的熱水100%完全被利用。但當熱水耗盡還須繼續使用熱水時，第三代太陽能熱水桶，就必須以電熱棒整桶加熱或額外製作小型加熱用儲水桶，針對此問題我們又研發了「第四代智慧型太陽能熱水桶」，在熱水桶內加裝一「固定式隔板」，以隔出約10%容量的冷水加熱區，以便進行局部區域加熱，如此便可有效率、更快速的供給熱水，當第一桶熱水已經用盡，需另用電熱棒加熱時，大約可節能90%。

The design of the 1st generation and 2nd generation solar water heating tanks is unsatisfactory. When we are using hot water, with the hot water being consumed, cold water will be added into the same tank at the same time, resulting in a significant drop in the temperature of the hot water in the tank and making it necessary to use an additional electric heating rod for reheating. To address this shortcoming, we had previously designed a 3rd generation solar water heating tank to improve the situation. A ''movable dividing disk'' is added inside the tank to completely isolate the hot water from the cold water, so that the entire tank of hot water can be 100% utilized. However, when the hot water is exhausted, the 3rd generation solar water heating tank must adopt an electric heating rod to re-heat the entire tank of water or make an additional small heating tank. In order to solve this problem, we have developed the ''4th generation intelligent solar water heating tank'', in which a ''fixed dividing disk'' is installed inside the water heating tank to create a cold-water heating zone of about 10% of the total capacity for local heating. This allows for an efficient and faster hot water supply, saving about 90% of energy when the first tank of hot water is used up and a separate electric heating rod is used for heating.