Enhanced Residential Water Heater: Experiments and Analysis

Abstract

In this paper, a new design to enhance the thermal performance of residential water heaters is suggested and investigated. The new design consists of using a mixer inside the water tank driven by electrical power. To proceed, experimental measurements are made by using thermocouples implemented in a water heater to study the thermal behavior. It is proved that the mixer could reduce the heating time about 20 min to heat water from 25 °C to 70 °C. In addition, the temperature homogeneity is also studied and it was shown that the temperature without the mixer could not be homogeneous within the water volume.