PERFORMANCE EVALUATION OF SOLAR FLAT PLATE COLLECTOR

Abstract

The analysis of thermal performance of the flat-plate collector includes parameters such as solar intensity, ambient temperature and configuration of flat-plate collectors etc. In this paper, the effect of the parameter (Ti- Ta)/IT on thermal performance of glazed flat-plate solar collector was experimentally analyzed for water heating application in winter climatic condition. The flatplate collector consists of the total surface area 0.6656 m2 and the copper tubes are integrated beneath the absorber plate. The plate has a selective coating with high absorptivity of 92% and the heat transfer fluid flowing in the tubes is water. In the paper, evaluation of useful heat gain or collector efficiency has been done. It is based on steady state analysis and by calculating the thermal performance of liquid flat-plate collector. Results show that the flat-plate collector gives good performance and provide a desire quantity of hot water.