Sky Temperature:

 Helps in predicting the performance of flat plate

collector by calculating the radiation heat exchange
between a surface and the sky.
 The equivalent blackbody sky temperature - accounts
for the facts that the atmosphere is not at a uniform
temperature and the atmosphere radiates only in
certain wavelength bands.
 Heat radiation loss shown in Figure 1-
 Due to difference in sky temperature and glass
cover temperature.

Fig 1. Heat transfer in a flat plate collector

Sky Temperature:
 The radiation heat transfer between a flat plate and the sky is given as:

𝑄 = ∈ 𝐴 𝜎 (𝑇 4 − 𝑇𝑠 4 )

Q is the radiative heat transfer

∈ is the emissivity of the flat plate

𝑇 is the surface temperature of flat plate in Kelvin

𝑇𝑠 is the equivalent blackbody sky temperature in Kelvin

Fig 2. Heat transfer in a flat plate collector

Sky Temperature:
 Sky temperature can be calculated from the empirical relation-
Ts = Ta − 6 (1)
𝑇𝑎 is the ambient temperature in Kelvin
 Correlation by Berdahl and Martin-
1
2
Ts = Ta [0.711 + 0.0056 Tdp + 0.000073 Tdp + 0.013 cos(15t)] 4 (2)

𝑇𝑑𝑝 is the dew point temperature in Celsius.

𝑇𝑎 is the ambient temperature in Kelvin
t is hour from midnight

Cloud Cover-
 Tends to increase the sky temperature as compared to a clear sky condition.
Consider a flat plate solar collector placed horizontally on the flat roof of a house (Figure 1). The
collector is 1.5 m wide and 4.5 m long, and the average temperature of the exposed surface of the
collector is 37°C. The emissivity of the exposed surface of the collector is 0.9. Determine the rate of heat
loss from the collector by convection and radiation during a calm day when the ambient air temperature
is 21°C and the effective sky temperature for radiation exchange is 10°C. Take the convection heat
transfer coefficient on the exposed surface to be 14.1 w/m2K.