Patent ID: 8746232

Claim:
A hot water supply system adapted to generate hot water to be supplied to a hot water destination, said hot water supply system comprising: a solar heater that absorbs solar heat and heats a heating medium with the absorbed solar heat; a cogeneration unit that has an internal combustion engine and a generator driven by the engine to generate power to be supplied to a power destination, and heats the heating medium by heat exhausted from the engine; a hot water supply unit that has a heat exchanger for heat-exchanging between the heating medium and water supplied from a water supply source to generate the hot water; a heating medium circulator that circulates the heating medium among the solar heater, the cogeneration unit and the heat exchanger of the hot water supply unit; an electric heater that heats the hot water with the power generated by the generator of the cogeneration unit; a heat absorption amount estimator that estimates a heat absorption amount to be adsorbed by the solar heater; wherein the heat absorption amount estimator estimates the heat absorption mount based on solar radiation data that is predetermined beforehand; a first temperature detector that detects a first temperature indicative of the heating medium flowing in the solar heater; a second temperature detector that detects a second temperature indicative of the heating medium flowing out of the solar heater; and an actual heat absorption amount calculator that calculates an actual heat absorption amount absorbed by the solar heater based on the first temperature and the second temperature; and the heat absorption amount estimator corrects the estimated heat absorption amount based on the calculated actual heat absorption amount and a controller that controls operations of the cogeneration unit and the electric heater to heat the heating medium based on the estimated heat absorption amount.