DOI: 10.5176/2251-3701_3.1.112
Authors: M. Chahoud
Abstract:
Two parabolic dish collectors with different properties referring to the reflective material, the receiver design and the tracking mechanism are tested in this work in order to examine their thermal performance as part of a residential solar water heater. In both cases, a parabolic dish manufactured originally for satellite television receiving has been used as a carrier for the reflective material which consists of aluminum strips in the first collector and glass mirrors in the second one. Novel receiver construction has been tested for each collector. Using the new construction it is possible to renounce the automatically tracking mechanism in the north –south direction in order to minimize the installation costs. Efficiency measurements of the collector with aluminum strips yielded 0.59 for the intercept efficiency and 2.9 W/m2K for the first order coefficient; whereas the values for the collector with glass mirrors are 0.71 and 2.1 W/m2K respectively. Published test reports of flat-plate and evacuated tube collectors are studied in order to assess the thermal performance of the designed collectors in this work. The efficiency curve of the collector with the glass mirrors lies higher than the average efficiency curve of flat-plate collectors and evacuated tube collectors.
Keywords: Solar energy, Solar water heating, Parabolic collector
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