Thermal performance of some flat plate solar water heaters
Abstract
Efficiency tests were carried out on four water-heating flat-plate solar
collectors (at Kabete campus) using a simple installation. The curve of
efficiency (the percentage of solar energy received by the collector that is
transferred to the water) against (ti-taj/ I (ti-ta and Ibeing the inlet water
temperature, ambient temperature and insolation, respectively) was
obtained for each solar collector. These curves are useful both in selecting a
suitable solar collector for a given duty and in designing and predicting the
performance of a solar water heating system. The thermal performance of
the four flat-plate solar collectors was compared. A solar collector with a
selective absorber surface was found to be most suitable for high
temperature applications such as provision of industrial process heat. For
low temperatures, a simple, cheap solar collector made at the test site
performed very well.
Citation
Kenya Journal of Sciences Series A (1986) 7(2): 5-18Publisher
Department of Food Technology and Nutrition