An industrial model solar water heating system is designed and installed, to heat and supply 110 000 liters of hot water at 85 degrees C per day for an egg powder making plant. It consists of a solar collector field (2560 m(2)), four thermally insulated hot water storage tanks (57.5 m(3) capacity each) and the heat distribution system with electrically operated pumps and pneumatic valves for circulation of water. It is equipped with a PC based data acquisition system to monitor the process parameters, a fault detection system to monitor the status of various subsystems and controls for automatic operation of the system. Performance studies conducted on the various subsystems and on the system as a whole revealed that it is delivering the designed thermal output, and the net savings in furnace oil consumption is 78% on an annual basis. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.