SOLAR ENERGY COLLECTORS

SOLAR COLLECTORS:

 Collector is a device which absorbs the incoming solar

radiation, converts it into heat, and transfers this heat to
a fluid (usually air, water, or oil) flowing through the
collector.
 COLLECTORS

Collecting Mounting Fluids

Flat (or) Concentric

Non (or) Stationary Adjustable Gas (or) Air
concentric Focussing
 Flat or Non concentric type collector

 Flat-plate collectors, developed by

Hottel and Whillier in the 1950s, are
the most common type of solar
collector which are widely used for
domestic household hot-water heating
, air heating

 Temperature can be upto 900

 In the Non-concentrating type, the

collector area is the same as the
absorber area.
 Flat (or)
Non
concentric

Fluid Type Air Type

 FLUID TYPE : Heat Transfer medium is water or any other liquid

 AIR TYPE : Heat Transfer medium is air or gas.

 A typical diagrams of
“ Flat plate solar thermal
collectors”
Components of Flat plate collector

GLAZING
ABSORBER

HEADERS

INSULATION

CONTAINER

** These can absorb both direct and diffused beam

radiations
 GLAZING:
o Made of one or more covers of transparent material like glass or plastic..

o It is used to reduce convective and radiative heat losses from the absorber.

o It is opaque to the infrared radiations.

ABSORBER :
o It is usually made of copper or steel metal.

o The surface is covered with a thin coating of primer and then flat black paint of high absorptance huge

paint may increase the resistance to heat tranfer

o Coating is applied on the surface to maximize the absorptance of solar energy and minimizes the

radiation emitted by plate.

TUBES OR HEADERS :
o A tube that is attached to absorber or sometimes it is a part of absorber plate.

o If the working fluid is air , the flow passage should be below the absorber plate to minimize heat losses.
 Insulation:
 These are some materials such as fiberglass and they are placed at the back and sides of

the collector to reduce heat losses. eg. wool, fiber etc...

Container :
 Which encloses the other components together and protects from the weather.
Flat plate collectors
Flat plate collector Fluid Type
Cross sectional arrangements through the
collector plates
Tube in strip type

Glazing
Riser
A Absorbing plate Glazing
B Riser
Absorbing plate

Insulation

Insulation
Cross sectional arrangements through
the collector plates
Tubes brazed to absorber

Glazing Glazing
C Riser Riser
Absorbing plate D Absorbing plate

Insulation
Insulation
 Working Principle

Sunlight passes through the glazing

and strikes the absorber plate, which
heats up, and solar energy is
converted into heat energy.

This the heat is transferred to the

fluid passing through pipes attached
to the absorber plate by means of
convective heat transfer.
 Glazing design
 Due to two glass sheets are used losses due to air convection are further reduced
, this is mainly used and important in windy areas.

 Radiation losses in infrared spectrum are reduced to 25% from 50% due to use of
two glass sheets.

 It is not economical to use more than two plates as if the plates increases it
reflects the solar radiation by 15 % and efficiency decreases.

 The air space between the cover and the absorber prevents heat loss by
convection

 However if one watches the electromagnetic spectrum

 As cover is made of glass

It allows the solar radiations of wavelength < 2µm

and is opaque for wavelength > 2µm

It is seen from electromagnetic spectrum that infrared

radiations having wavelength > 2µm

As a result infrared are opaque and does not pass

Soo heat is trapped inside the space between the cover and

absorber plate similar to green house effect and keeps it hot.

However some of heat occurs due to conduction , convection , and

radiation thereby effecting the overall efficiency.
 Glazing design considerations

 This can be met by following steps :--

 It can be reduced by using "water white glass" with low iron content

 Reflection which is order of 15% can be met by gentlly itching the

glass surface hydro flouric acid.
 Absorber design
 Coating done on the absorber surface is called "selective coatings "

 "Black chrome" is extensively used coating which is of 2µm

thickness

Heat transport sytem

 Heat generated in the absorber is continuosly taken by the flow of
medium through tubes.
?
 Air Heaters

Non porus Porus

Absorber Absorber

Non porus absorber : Air flows above and beneath the absorber.

Porus Absorber : Air flows through the absorber.

Non Porus Air heater
 Air Type Flat plate collectors

 Used commonly for space heating and agricultural

heating applications.

A Typical
Flat plate collector
Solar air heater
Collectors with porus absorbers
 Design of Air plate collector
 Heavily insulated material like mineral wool is coated beneath the
surface of absorber

 The most favourable orientation of the panel is facing due south with
an inclination of 15o latitude with the horizontal.

 Air as medium of heat transfer eliminates the corrossion and

freezing problems which are more when water is used.

 Air is passed through the baffles arranged in zig zag pattern

between the absorber and insulation where fins provides the more
contact area thereby more amount of heat to transfer.
 Applications Advantages

Air collectors Flat Plate collectors

Heating Buildings
Both Beam and Diffuse radiations
Drying Agricultural Products
orientation need not be towards sun
Heating Green houses.
little maintaince
Heat source for heat engines.
simplier than concentric plate type
 Thermal Analysis of Flat Plate Collectors
Thermal Analysis of Flat Plate Collectors
 If I is the intensity of solar radiation, in W/m2 , incident on the aperture plane of the
solar collector having a collector surface area of A, in m2

 Then the amount of solar radiation received by the collector is :

 However, as it is shown Figure 2, a part of this radiation is reflected back to the sky,
another component is absorbed by the glazing and the rest is transmitted through the
glazing and reaches the absorber plate as short wave radiation.

 Therefore the conversion factor indicates the percentage of the solar rays penetrating
the transparent cover of the collector (transmission) and the percentage being
absorbed.

 Basically, it is the product of the rate of transmission of the cover and the absorption
rate of the absorber and is given by
Thermal Analysis of Flat Plate Collectors
 As the collector absorbs heat its temperature is getting higher than that of
the surrounding and heat is lost to the atmosphere by convection and
radiation.

 The rate of heat loss (Qo) depends on the collector overall heat loss
coefficient (UL) and the collector temperature.
Thermal Analysis of Flat Plate Collectors

Under steady state conditions

 The rate of useful energy extracted by the collector (Qu), expressed as

It is also known that the rate of extraction of heat from the collector may be
measured by means of the amount of heat carried away in the fluid passed
through it, that is:
Thermal Analysis of Flat Plate Collectors
 It is convenient to define a quantity that relates the actual useful energy
gain of a collector to the useful gain if the whole collector surface were at
the fluid inlet temperature. This quantity is known as “the collector heat
removal factor (FR)” and is expressed as:
Concentric type collector :
simple concentric collector
\
 Types of concentric collectors
 a) Flat plate collector with adjustable mirrors

 b) Compounded parabolic collector

 c) Cylindrical parabolic collector

 d) Mirror strip reflector (or) Moving reflector with fixed concentrator

 e) Fresnel lens collector

 f) Parabolic trough collector

Cylindrical parabolic trough collector

 Beam radiation is reflected from the

number of individual mirrors called
heliostats to the central receiver at the top.

 Upto 20000C
Fresnel Lens Collector

It is flat on one side and has

fine longitudinal grooves on
the other

The angles of these grooves

are such that the radiation is
brought to the focus

Lens are made of plastic

sheets.

Used upto 4000C

Parabolic trough collector

 solar radiation coming in a

particular direction is collected
and is collected on the focus of
the parabola
Thermal Analysis of concentrate collectors

 Under the steady state conditions we have :

 Equation is written assuming that the contribution of diffuse beam

radiations are negligible
 And Q1 the overall loss coefficient can be given as :
 CONCLUSION
Long lasting

Cheaper than other water heating systems.

However,they requires large areas

Also solar energy is free

If we do not include the initial cost for installation and the maintenance.

Finally; besides these we should remember by using solar energy we can

protect nature
The End