An experimental investigation of solar collector with reflector

Abstract

In the present decade, the diminishing of fossil fuels and the adverse effect of pollution caused by them have kept the world in a crucial place to seek the alternatives like unconventional energy sources. The regulations of the nations turn the researchers to focus on solar and wind energies. But, the availability of solar energy gains the vision of the researchers to concentrate more on them. The direct method of using solar energy is to convert it into heat by a collector called the solar collector and the same technique is familiar among the common people by the solar water heater. newlineThe efficiency of the solar water heater was normally around 40% to 60%. It is low and it can be improved by insight. On the other hand, the initial cost involved in solar energy harvesting. So, it is important to increase the efficiency by which the operational cost involved in solar energy can be reduced to make wide use of it among common people. newlineThis work focused on the improvement of thermal efficiency of the solar water heater by providing the selective layer coating in the absorber panel and using the glass reflector in the flat plate collector. It is further improved by optimizing the process variables. For this study, a solar water heater was fabricated with a flat plate collector. Initially, the absorptivity and emissivity of the copper plate that is to be used in the fabrication of the flat plate collector were found. Now, two copper plates of size 100 mm × 100 mm × 1 mm were electroplated for black chrome (BC) and Nickel-Cobalt (Ni-Co) and found their absorptivity and emissivity newline