EXPERIMENTAL OF SOLAR AIR DRIER WITH AND WITHOUT COMMERCIAL MIRROR

REFLECTOR

Mirmanto
Mechanical Engineering Department, The University of Mataram
Jl. Majapahit no. 62, Mataram, NTB, Indonesia
mirmanto70@yahoo.com

ABSTRACT

Nowadays, un-renewable energy is decreasing. To anticipate this situation, is needed some

effort to dig the alternative energy resources. One of alternative energy is solar energy. This energy
is cheap, abundantly and free of pollutant. The problem occurs in how to use solar energy is due to
its lower efficiency. Many researches have been done to improve the efficiency. Therefore, many
types of collectors have been discovered. The cheapest collector is bare tube flat plate collector
respectively. This collector is simple in construction, easy to be maintained, but lower efficiency. To
increase this collector efficiency should add the reflector. Reflector in this case can collect the sun
radiation and reflect it to the absorber. Therefore, the absorber can receive a lot of sun radiation.
This paper explains that research on the bare tube collector with and without reflector was done.
Absorber is made of blacken aluminum pipes, 20 mm in diameter, and 2900 mm in length. The
cover of collector is made of commercial glass of 3 mm thickness, 22 mm width, and 2900 mm
length. Total collector dimension is 55 mm x 2950 mm. There are two reflectors mounted on its both
sides (right and left of absorber, parallel to the length of collector). The result of the research
indicates that no significance in temperatures difference between collector using reflector and
without reflector. On the other hand, useful energy of collector using reflector is greater then that
of without reflector.

Keyword: Energy, Useful Energy, Collector, reflector, absorber, and efficiency.

ORYZA Volume II no. 4, January 2004