Measurement of the efficiency of evacuated tube solar collectors under various operating conditions

Abstract

The purpose of this research program was to measure the efficiency of evacuated tube solar collectors under various operating conditions including: the angle of inclination towards the incident solar radiation, heat transfer fluid flow rate, glazing installation, and number of evacuated tubes. The operating conditions and configurations were chosen to represent realistic or probable installation scenarios and environmental conditions. Furthermore, the research aimed to identify the suitability of evacuated tube solar collectors to each of the scenarios. The scope of the research project was limited to the efficiency of a single tube, and various configurations of a 32-tube panel, not the entire solar domestic hot water or space heating system. Thus, factors such as heat loss in the tubing, solar storage tank, and heat exchanger efficiency were not investigated. The findings indicated that efficiency varied by approximately 5% in general between the different collector configurations.