AMERICAN INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY-

BANGLADESH (AIUB)
Faculty of Engineering
Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering

RENEWABLE ENERGY TECHNOLOGY

SECTION: A LAB REPORT NO: 01
GROUP NO: 08 DATE: 11-02-2021

Title of the Experiment: Familiarization with Solar Thermal

System.
Submitted by:
NAME: HANIF MD ABU ID: 18-38397-2

SL Group Member’s Name ID

1. SAIF, MD. ZILAN UDDIN 18-38405-2

2. SANJID ISLAM 18-38984-3

3. CHANDRO SHAKHAR GOLDAR 17-35796-3

4. ZAHID ALAM FAHIM 17-34883-2

5 A.G.M. WAZED PARVEZ 17-35726-3

Submitted To:

S. M. IMRAT RAHMAN
Experiment Name: Familiarization with Solar thermal system.
Introduction:
Solar thermal or solar heating harnesses the energy provided by the sun to provide thermal
energy to heat water. The hot water produced by the solar heating can be used to supplement
your domestic hot water (although the temperature might need to be topped up by a boiler),
larger stores of water (like swimming pools), underfloor heating, and for space heating/cooling.
The rays of the sun pass through the glass and are caught in the gap between the cover
and the plate, or the black body absorbs them. The following water through the
pipe system situated between the cover and the absorber plate is heated and then transferred to
the storage tank. Flat plate collectors are best suited when temperatures below 100ºC are needed.
They are easy to assemble; low cost; easy to design and manufacture; durable; do not need sun-
tracking; can run on cloudy days; and require minimal maintenance.
The thermosyphon system's output depends on the size and capability of the storage tank, the
collector's thermal capacity and the
connecting pipes, including fluid flow, and the hot water consumption pattern.
Unlike a solar photovoltaic cell array, which is designed to produce electricity, a solar heating
system is designed simply to produce heat. A well-designed solar heating system will provide
approximately 55% of your annual domestic hot water requirement. However, as it is reliant on
the sun, your solar heating system will produce more heat in the summer months.
Theory:
Solar Thermal Collectors: A solar thermal collector collects heat by absorbing sunlight. The
term "solar collector" commonly refers to a device for solar hot water heating, but may refer to
large power generating installations such as solar parabolic troughs and solar towers or non-
water heating devices such as solar air heaters. Solar thermal collectors are either non-
concentrating or concentrating. In non-concentrating collectors, the aperture area is roughly the
same as the absorber area.
Concentrating collectors have a much larger aperture than the absorber area. The aperture is
typically in the form of a mirror that is focused on the absorber, which in most cases are the
pipes carrying the working fluid.[2] Due to the movement of the sun during the day,
concentrating collectors often require some form of solar tracking system, and are sometimes
referred to "active" collectors for this reason.
Non-concentrating collectors are typically used in residential and commercial buildings for space
heating, while concentrating collectors in concentrated solar power plants generate electricity by
heating a heat-transfer fluid to drive a turbine connected to an electrical generator.
 Fig: Solar Thermal Collector.
Flat plate collectors:
The flat-plate solar collectors are probably the most fundamental and most studied technology
for solar-powered domestic hot water systems. The overall idea behind this technology is pretty
simple. The Sun heats a dark flat surface, which collect as much energy as possible, and then the
energy is transferred to water, air, or other fluid for further use.
These are the main components of a typical flat-plate solar collector:
 Black surface - absorbent of the incident solar energy
 Glazing cover - a transparent layer that transmits radiation to the absorber, but prevents
radiative and convective heat loss from the surface
 Tubes containing heating fluid to transfer the heat from the collector
 Support structure to protect the components and hold them in place
 Insulation covering sides and bottom of the collector to reduce heat losses
 Fig: Flat plate collector.
Construction of solar thermal system:
The term 'solar thermal' (ST) is used to describe a system where the energy from the sun is
harvested to be used for its heat. Solar thermal systems differ from solar photovoltaics which
convert sunlight directly into electricity. The use of the term 'solar thermal' is also associated
with the integration of 'passive' heating and cooling technologies in buildings.

Solar thermal systems benefiting from around 60% of the solar energy that is received from the
sunlight. The amount of solar radiation received (also known as 'solar insolation') is measured in
kWh (kilowatt hours) over a particular time period. Solar thermal systems are rated in kWth
(thermal kW).
 Fig: Solar thermal system.
Working principle:
A solar thermal system works by harnessing is the sun’s energy and converting it into heat which
is then transferred into your home or businesses heating system as hot water or space heating.
Solar thermal panels are used in conjunction with a boiler, collector or immersion heater. The
solar collector will use the sun’s rays to heat a transfer fluid which is a mixture of water and
glycol, to prevent the water from freezing in the winter. The heated water from the collectors is
pumped to a heat exchanger inside a water cylinder. The heat from the exchanger will then heat
the water inside the cylinder.
After the liquid releases its heat, the water will flow back to the collectors for reheating. A
controller will ensure that the fluid will circulate to the collector when there is sufficient heat
available. Solar thermal technology is proven, reliable and low maintenance.
 Collector: A solar collector is an object that is used to collect energy from the sun, which
it does by absorbing solar radiation and converting it into heat or electricity. The material
type and coating on a solar collector are used to maximize solar energy absorption.
 Fig: Collector.
 Glass: Toughened glass (glazing) protects the absorber from the outside environment
while allowing through >90% of sunlight.
 Absorber: A thin sheet of Aluminum is coated with a highly selective material that is
extremely efficient at absorbing sunlight and converting it in to usable heat.

Fig: Aluminum absorber.

 Insulation: The insulation helps reduce heat loss from the sides and back of the collector.
 Made from ultra-light weight melamine foam this material is chosen to greatly reduce the
w.
 Back Sheet: An aluminum alloy sheet seals the back of the panel and adds to the rigidity
of the collector.
  Water tank: Water tank serves to store hot water from solar collector the tank is
insulated so that there should be minimum loss of heat. The size of water tank is
determined by the quantity of water to be heated.
Advantages:
1) No Fuel Cost: Solar Thermal Energy does not require any fuel like most other sources of
renewable energy. This is a huge advantage over other fossil fuels whose costs are increasing at a
drastic rate every year. Electricity prices are increasingly rapidly in most parts of the world much
faster than general inflation. Price shocks due to high fuel costs are a big risk with fossil fuel
energy these days.
2) No Pollution and Global Warming Effects: Solar Thermal Energy does not cause pollution
which is one of the biggest advantages. Note there are costs associated with the equipment used
to build and transport Solar Thermal Energy Equipment.
3) Using Existing Industrial Base: Solar Thermal Energy uses equipment like solar thermal
mirrors and turbines which is made in large scale at low cost by the existing Industrial Base and
requires no major changes in equipment and materials unlike new technologies such as CIGs
Panels.
5)Technology Development: Technology in the solar power industry is constantly advancing
and improvements will intensify in the future. Innovations in quantum physics and
nanotechnology can potentially increase the effectiveness of solar panels and double, or even
triple, the electrical input of the solar power systems.
Disadvantages:
1) High Costs: Solar Thermal Energy costs at least Euro 3.5/watt and has not declined too much
in the last 3-4 years. However, these costs are too high as Solar PV already costs Euro 2.5/watt
and even on a conservative basis will have its costs reduced by 5% in the next 10 years making it
attain half the cost of Solar Thermal Technology by 2020.
2) Ecological and Cultural Issues: The Usage of Massive Arrays of Mirrors is noted to heavily
impact the Desert Wildlife endangering the endangered species. California has already seen a
massive fight on this issue with Project Developers curtailing the size of their Plants and
spending money to move the wildlife.
3) Limited Locations and Size Limitations: Solar Thermal Energy can only be built in places
which have the high amount of solar radiation. They can be built in deserts mostly and require a
large land area. This means its not possible to build them in populated areas. Solar Thermal
Energy also can only be built in large sizes which are at least 50 MW in size to be economical.
This contrasts to Solar PV which is sold in sizes as low as 5 Watts.
4) Financing: is the biggest problem in developing projects particularly for small solar thermal
developers in this industry.
5)Weather-Dependent: Although solar energy can still be collected during cloudy and rainy
days, the efficiency of the solar system drops. Solar panels are dependent on sunlight to
effectively gather solar energy. Therefore, a few cloudy, rainy days can have a noticeable effect
on the energy system. You should also take into account that solar energy cannot be collected
during the night.
Methodology:

Fig: Thermo-syphon Solar Water Heater

Thermo-siphoning is considered to be an appropriate technology. This process utilizes natural,
renewable resources and the basic laws of thermodynamics to create movement of a heated
supply of air or water. The energy source for this process is solar radiation (or any other source
of heat): the energy of the sun is captured in a solar collection device and is transferred to either
air or water via conduction. The entire process may be explained by the Thermos phoning effect.
When air or water is heated, it gains kinetic energy from the heating source and becomes excited.
As a result, the water becomes less dense, expands, and thus rises. In contrast, when water or air
is cooled, energy is extracted from the molecules and the water becomes less active, denser, and
tends to "sink." Thermos phoning harnesses the natural density differences between cold and hot
fluids, and controls them in a system that produces natural fluid movement.

Fig: Solar Flat Plate Collector

Discussion and Conclusion:
Unfortunately, we did not complete our lab by the hardware due to online class. In this
experiment, the active solar water heating direct circulation systems using the thermo- syphon
solar flat plate collector have to test.
The flat plate collector efficiency using water as a working medium. Since hot water is circulated
by thermos-siphon principle (through evaporation and condensation), ideal final temperature of
hot water should be 100ºC in the absence of any heat loss. Thus, further increase in number of
tubes and emissivity of glass cover is likely to improve on the water outlet temperature which
might get also be affected by ambient temperature, so as to get maximum efficiency of the
system. The experiment will successful in completing with the goals that initially set.