A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Engineering in Mechatronics

Thesis (M. Eng.) -- Asian Institute of Technology, 2017

A Domestic Forced Circulation Solar Water Heating System is designed and developed in this paper. This system is an autonomous system which provides free hot water for one person{u2019}s needs at temperature of 65{u02DA}C in a normal sunny day. As the name of the system is forced circulation system, it needs a water pump to circulate tank{u2019}s waterthrough the solar heat collector to get heat energy. It is realized with a control board based on the Arduino Mega board. The control board controls, the functioning of the circulation pump, the level of water into the tank, the solenoid valves which are installed at the tank{u2019}s inlet and outlet, and the flow rate of the hot water consumption from the storage tank. The solar thermal collector of the system is fixed in a tilt of 15 degree angle. It transfers the solar energy to water when water is circulating by the circulation pump through it. Pump runs only when water gets useful energy from the collector and the circulation of water is continues until the water temperature become nearly same with the temperature of collector. The solar thermal collector efficiency in this project can be increased 30% to 40% by implementation of a tracking mechanism on the thermal collector but there are time and budget limitations in this project. Therefore, a small Dual Axis Solar Tracker which is controlling by Arduino Mega board, and track the light in any direction is designed to convey the purpose of tracking mechanism, in this project.