Heat Removal Factor in Flat Plate Solar Collectors: Indoor Test Method

Orlando Montoya-Márquez and José Jassón Flores-Prieto
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Orlando Montoya-Márquez: Facultad de Ingeniería, Universidad Panamericana, Prolongación Calzada Circunvalación Poniente 49, Zapopan 45010, Mexico
José Jassón Flores-Prieto: Tecnológico Nacional de México—CENIDET. Int. Internado Palmira s/n, Cuernavaca 62490, Mexico

Energies, 2018, vol. 11, issue 10, 1-12

Abstract: This paper presents a couple of methods to evaluate the heat removal factor F R of flat plate solar collectors, as well as a parametric study of the F R against the tilt angle β , and ( T i − T a )/ G , and its effects on the a 0 -factor ( F R τα ) and the a 1 -factor ( F R U Lmin ). The proposed methods were based on indoor flow calorimetry. The first method considers the ratio of the actual useful heat to the maximum useful heat. The second takes into account the slopes of the family of efficiency curves ( F R U Lmin ) according to ANSI/ASHRAE 93-2010, and the minimum overall heat loss coefficient, U Lmin . In both methods, a feedback temperature control at collector inclinations from horizontal to vertical allows the inlet temperature and the emulating of the solar radiation to be established by electrical heating. The performance of the methods was determined in terms of the uncertainty of the F R . Method 1 allowed a three-fold improved precision compared to Method 2; however, this implied a more detailed experimental setup. According to the first method, the effects of the tilt angle β , and the ( Ti − Ta )/ G , on the a 0 -factor were considerable, since F R is directly proportional to the a 0 -factor. The changes in ( Ti − Ta )/ G caused an average change in F R of 32% The F R shows almost linear behavior for inclinations from horizontal to vertical with a 14.5% change. The effects of β on the a 1 -factor were not considerable, due to the compensation between the increase in F R and the decrease in U Lmin as β increased.

Keywords: heat removal factor; covered solar collectors; tilt solar collector; inclined solar collector (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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