Energy Conversion and Management 65 (2013) 715–720

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Energy Conversion and Management

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/enconman

Experimental investigation of the performance of five types of solar collectors

A. Sakhrieh a,⇑, A. Al-Ghandoor b
a
Mechanical Engineering Department, The University of Jordan, Amman 11942, Jordan
b
Industrial Engineering Department, The Hashemite University, Zarqa 13115, Jordan

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Experimental investigation of overall performance, efficiency and reliability of five types of solar collec-
Available online 24 April 2012 tors is carried out. The systems involved in this study are blue and black coating-selective copper, copper,
and aluminum collectors in addition to evacuated tubes collectors. The experiments were carried out
Keywords: during April under same conditions for all collectors. The sky was almost clear with an ambient temper-
Solar energy ature in the range 18–26 °C. Readings are collected daily from 8:00 am to 4:00 pm. The solar radiation
Thermosyphon solar water heater intensity ranged from 154.0 to 1004.33 W/m2.
Efficiency
Considering size of application, cost of appliance, quality and maintenance follow-up, results show that
Payback period
evacuated tube, blue and black coating-selective copper collectors are recommended for medium and
large scale applications due to their long life, high efficiency ease of maintenance. Aluminum collectors
are recommended for small applications like houses.
Ó 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction that can be exploited in many directions and in different fields to

Jordan is a small country with limited natural resources. The
country is currently exploring ways to use its existing energy re-
sources more efficiently. Although Jordan has large oil shale re-
serves, it is totally dependent on imported crude oil and some
petroleum products to meet domestic energy demand required
for its socioeconomic development. The cost of the imported oil
and crude oil products in the year 2006 was found to be around
1755 JD million thereby forming 18.9% of the Gross Domestic Prod-
uct (GDP) [1].
The increase in the emission of greenhouse gases is a direct re-
sult of the increase in the consumption of fuels. The quantities of
greenhouse gases resulting from energy use in Jordan in 2006 were
about 20.8 million tons, while the amount of emissions for the year
1996 were about 13.3 million tons, increasing by 64.5% [2]. This in-
crease is attributed to the rising numbers of vehicles, as well as the
rapid growth of the population. Table 1 shows totals of the esti-
mated quantities of greenhouse gases resulting from energy uses
in the different sectors for selected years (1000 tons/year) [2].
The previously discussed facts and numbers show clearly how
our near future would be affected in many ways, either by the ra-
pid decrease of energy amounts stored inside land and seas, or by
the decaying quality of the atmosphere.
A solution for the above mentioned problems is the sun which
supplies the earth with tremendous amount of energy every day
⇑ Corresponding author.
E-mail address: asakhrieh@ju.edu.jo (A. Sakhrieh).
back-up energy stored within the earth or even replace it when
efficiently used.
Jordan is located in the framework of the so-called Sunbelt
states that are located between latitudes 35 north and 35 south.
Jordan has high potential of solar energy, where the annual average
of global solar energy is about 1800 kW h/m2/year and the number
of sunny days is around 300 days per year. This provides a great
opportunity for the exploitation of solar energy in Jordan especially
in households as shown in Fig. 1. It is noted that the greatest share
of residential energy is used in heating domestic water. A careful
study in this specific area can minimize the large consumption of
oil and electrical energy.
Solar collectors and their applications are a hot topic all over the
world. Several researches are concerned with developing and/or
analyzing existing solar thermal systems [3–11]. For example a
comparison of performance and cost effectiveness of solar water
heaters at deferent collector tracking modes in Cyprus and Greece
has been performed [3]. The thermal performance of differently
designed solar heating systems including three solar combi sys-
tems, four marketed flat plate solar collectors and one marketed
evacuated tubular solar collector is calculated with weather data
from the Danish design reference year and measured Danish
weather data from 1990 to 2002 [4]. Experimental investigation
of the overall performance of solar collectors under local weather
conditions of Lebanon as encountered along the eastern coast of
the Mediterranean Sea is carried out for two kinds of evacuated
tube solar collectors, namely, the water-in-glass tubes and the
heat-pipe designs [5]. In Turkey four solar air collectors: a finned
collector with an angle of 75°, a finned collector with an angle of

0196-8904/$ - see front matter Ó 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.enconman.2011.12.038
716 A. Sakhrieh, A. Al-Ghandoor / Energy Conversion and Management 65 (2013) 715–720
Fig. 1. Distribution of the residential energy use in Jordan.
70°, a collector with tubes, and a base collector were tested. After
that a comparison is made among them on the basis of first and
second law efficiencies [6].
Most common types of solar collectors are presented in Ref. [7].
Authors presented optical, thermal and thermodynamic analysis
of collectors as well as methods to evaluate their performance.
Additionally, typical applications are described in order to show
the extent of their applicability. These include water heating, space
heating and cooling, refrigeration, industrial process heat, desali-
nation, thermal power systems, solar furnaces and chemistry
applications.
Different working conditions of solar collectors were studied
experimentally and theoretically such as; the performance of a so-
lar flat-plate thermal collector wholly manufactured in a copoly-
mer material in low flow conditions [8]; solar collectors that are
able to provide both hot water and hot air to increase annual ther-
mal conversion ration of solar energy [9]; steady-state and quasi-
dynamic test methods both for flat plate and evacuated tube col-
lectors [10] and Neural network approach to determine the effi-
ciency of flat-plate solar collectors [11].
Thermosyphon solar water heaters are considered a very attrac-
tive application of solar energy and have gained popularity in Jor-
dan. According to official statistics, each year nearly 15,000 system
are installed in Jordan. Solar thermal systems are used in hospitals,
schools, hotels, swimming pools, and in many industrial and agri-
cultural applications.
Solar water heating for domestic purposes is at present the
most attractive way of utilizing solar energy in Jordan [12].
Economical investigations of an integrated boiler-solar system in
Fig. 2. Flat plate solar collector.
Jordan showed that using solar water heaters to heat space and
for domestic water is cost-effective. Payback can be as low as
3 years, and utility bills are much lower than they would be using
a conventional heating system [13]. Locally manufactured solar
water heating systems were tested under the Jordanian climate
conditions [14]. In a recent paper [15], Mohsen and Akash con-
ducted an experiment on the performance of compact SWH under
local climatic conditions. The tested collector in this experiment
was of a box type with single glazing. It was found that a temper-
ature rise of 30 °C can be achieved by the system for a particular
sunny day during the month of November. Researchers focused
also on the demand on water heating systems and their energy
saving potential in Jordan [16]. Furthermore fuzzy sets program-
ming to perform evaluation of solar systems in Jordan was pre-
sented in [17].
This study is conducted to highlight the overall performance of
different solar water heating system available in the local market.
After that the potential of using solar collectors in heating the
Hashemite University swimming pool will be investigated. Fur-
thermore, the payback period for replacing the existing system
with a solar one is calculated.
2. Experimental
Solar thermal collectors are a special kind of heat exchangers. It
transforms solar radiation to internal energy of the transport med-
ium. These devices absorb the incoming solar radiation and con-
vert it into heat energy and also transfer this heat to a working
fluid flowing through the solar collector. Flat-plate solar collectors
are the most common for use in solar water-heating systems in
homes and in solar space-heating. A typical flat-plate solar collec-
tor including components is shown in Fig. 2. Flat-plate solar collec-
tors are usually permanently fixed in position and require no
tracking of the sun [7]. As seen in Fig. 2, a flat-plate collector con-
sists basically of an insulated metal box with a glass or plastic cov-
er (the glazing) and a dark-colored absorber plate. Solar radiation is
absorbed by the absorber plate and transferred to a fluid that cir-
culates through the collector in tubes.
The selected solar collectors for this study were chosen based
on their availability in local market and domestic demand.
The following sections demonstrate collectors used in this work
taking into consideration, main components of systems, specifica-
tions, materials used, cost, maintenance and reliability. All systems
studied are of a thermosyphon type. The storage tank, located
above the collector receives heated water coming from the top of
 A. Sakhrieh, A. Al-Ghandoor / Energy Conversion and Management 65 (2013) 715–720 717

Table 1 the collector into the top of the storage tank. Colder water from the
Quantities of greenhouse gases resulting from energy uses in different sectors [2]. bottom of the storage tank will be drawn into the lower entry of
Gas 1996 2006 the solar collector to replace the heated water that was thermosi-
Methane 1.7 2.7 phoned upward.
N2O 0.3 0.3 In this experimental study 5 systems are compared; selective
CO2 13,297.9 20,766.9 black (Type I) and blue (Type II) copper, copper (Type III), and alu-
Total 13,299.9 20,769.9 minum (Type IV) collectors in addition to evacuated tubes (Type V)
collectors. The specifications of the solar collectors used in this
experimental study are presented in Tables 2 and 3. The specifica-
Table 2
tions of the cylinders attached to each system are presented in
Blue and black coating-selective copper, copper, and aluminum collectors’ specifica- Table 4.
tions. Black coating selective copper thermosyphon solar water heater
(Type I) is of high reliability because of its manufacturing quality
Black coating Blue coating Copper Aluminum
selective copper selective solar solar that assures well-sealed system and stable structure. The glass
thermosyphon copper collector collectors cover offers high scratch resistance and good thermal insulation
solar water heater collectors (Type III) (Type IV) for entrapped heat. The selective coating material assures high
(Type I) (Type II)
absorption into the collector. Usually producers give a 10-years
Dimensions 187.5  88 185.5  86 186  86 187.5  87.5 warranty. Blue coating selective copper collectors (Type II) are
(mm)
available in the market with approximately 10-years warranty.
Gross area 1.65 1.6 1.6 1.65
(m2)
They are provided with special coating material applied on the
Absorber Selective coating Copper Special Black welded copper pipes. In copper solar collector (Type III), welded
copper tubes with copper painted copper pipes that eliminate leakage issues and calcification of
selective collectors aluminum pipeline along with the 10-years warranty give it a good reliability
coating painted pipes
and the copper pipes grant a noticeable overall performance. A dis-
black
Front cover Tempered solar Regular Regular- Regular- advantage regarding the black paint used onto the absorber’s pipes
glass tempered tempered tempered is that the paint itself slightly distracts and reflects the flux. Alumi-
Price (JD) 500 425 375 300 num solar collectors (Type IV) have well welded aluminum pipes
to avoid leakage and calcification of pipeline. The relatively fragile
pipes of evacuated tube collectors (Type V) enforce higher caution
when installed and throughout usage. It also cannot withstand
Table 3 pressure exceeding 0.4 bar. Ports (outlets/inlets) coming out of
Evacuated tube collector specifications. the cylinder are fixed within the foam (insulation material separat-
ing inner and outer covers of cylinder) makes maintenance and
Number of 20
tubes replacement of these ports if damaged nearly impossible task. Cyl-
inders are insulated using a layer of a high insulating material
Gross area 1.6168 (for 20
(m2) tubes) known as Polyurethane (PU). The relationship between tempera-
Material Borosilicate ture and thermal conductivity is indicated Fig. 3.
glass 3.3 In this study all collectors were fixed facing south with a tilt an-
Absorptive Cu/AL/SS/N2 gle of 30° and 45°. Several measuring instruments were used.
coating
Price (JD) 500
These instruments include, flow measurement devices, thermo-
couples and pyranometer to measure the global radiation.

Table 4
Hot water cylinders specifications cylinder.

Black coating selective copper thermosyphon Blue coating selective copper Copper solar Aluminum solar Evacuated tube
solar water heater (Type I) collectors (Type II) collector (Type III) collectors (Type IV) (Type V)
Capacity (L) 145 150 150 150 200
Outside cover 0.2 0.7 0.7 0.7 0.7
thickness (mm)
Inside cover 0.5 2.0 2.0 2.0 2.0
thickness (mm)
Insulation 90 50 50 50 50
thickness (mm)

Table 5
measured data for 5 solar collectors in April.

Time m0 (kg/s) Ta Black coating Blue coating Copper Evacuated Aluminum

To To  Ti g To To  Ti g To To  Ti g To To  Ti g To To  Ti g
08:00 am 0.033 18 51 34 47 46 29 41.3 45 28 39.9 57 40 56.6 46 29 41.3
10:00 am 0.033 21 57 36 49.7 57 36 51.3 55 34 48.5 66 45 63.7 57 36 51.3
12:00 pm 0.033 24 69 44 60.8 66 41 58.4 62 37 52.7 79 54 76.5 64 39 55.6
02:00 pm 0.033 25 84 56 80.1 80 52 77 76 49 71.3 92 62 93.5 79 51 75.6
04:00 pm 0.033 26 82 58 77.4 78 54 74.1 75 50 69.8 88 66 87.8 77 53 72.7
718 A. Sakhrieh, A. Al-Ghandoor / Energy Conversion and Management 65 (2013) 715–720
Fig. 3. PU thermal conductivity versus temperature [18].
Fig. 4. Water temperatures at the outlet of the solar collector in April.
Fig. 5. Instantaneous collector efficiencies for the five collectors used.
3. Results and discussion
The test facility has five different types of solar collectors, pyr-
anometer, thermocouples and flow-rate measuring device. The col-
lectors were placed in the Hashemite University located 32.6°
longitude and 36.11° latitude in Al-Zarqa City to the north of Am-
man. The monthly solar energy received in this area for the month
of this study – April – is obtained from readings of the pyranometer
resulting in an average monthly radiation of 6.04 kW h m2 day1.
Optimal positioning and orientation was set to be south-facing,
while tilt angles were set to be 30° for locally manufactured
collectors and 45° for the e-zinc collector. Tilt angles used are recom-
mended by the manufacture of the solar collectors. The experimen-
tal flow rate was fixed using flow control device at 2 L m1
(equivalent to 0.033 kg s1).
Fig. 6. Measured solar radiation as a function of time for different days each month.
Fig. 7. Average collector efficiencies for the five collectors used.
Table 6
The Hashemite University swimming pool
specifications.
Volume (m3) 772
Qwater (kJ) 9694,776
Diesel needed (lt/day) 400
Daily cost (JD) 204
Yearly cost (JD) 74,460
The source of heat in a solar collector is solar energy and the in-
put power is usually the irradiation, I, received on the surface of
the collector, absorbed and then transferred to the working fluid.
By dividing the net power output by the input power, an overall
efficiency can be defined. Such efficiency is generally considered
as instantaneous efficiency because it is a function of instanta-
neous operating conditions including local climatic parameters like
the ambient temperature, the wind speed, etc.
m0 C p ðT o  T i Þ
g¼ 100%
IA
where m0 is mass flow rate of hot water in kg s1, I is the incident
radiation in W h m2, Cp is the specific heat of water in J kg1 °C1,
A is the gross area of collector in m2, To is water outlet temperature
in °C, and Ti is water inlet temperature in °C. Specific heat of water
at operation temperature is taken to be 4.18 kJ kg1 °C1.
Readings were reported in April every 2 h starting from 8:00 am
and ending at 4:00 pm for 2 weeks. During the test period, the
minimum recorded ambient temperature was 18 °C and the max-
imum recorded ambient temperature was 26 °C.
Table 5 and Figs. 4–7 present results obtained for the 5 solar
collectors involved in this study.
 A. Sakhrieh, A. Al-Ghandoor / Energy Conversion and Management 65 (2013) 715–720
Table 7
Comparison between different solar collectors used for heating the Hashemite University swimming pool.
Type Number of collectors Unit price (JD)
Black coated 326 500
Aluminum 357 300
Cooper 378 375
Blue coated 350 425
Evacuated 287 500
Fig. 4 shows the experimental results of the temperature values
at the outlet of the solar collector averaged over 2 weeks. Because
of the natural circulation of water between the collector and the
tank, water temperatures at outlet kept rising during the test time
as long as the amount of energy gained from the sun is higher than
the energy lost from the system. After that the water temperatures
at the outlet starts to decrease. It is to be noted that the maximum
water temperatures at the outlet reached 92 °C in the case of using
evacuated tube solar collector. Whereas the lowest water temper-
atures at the outlet is obtained when copper collector is used. The
water temperatures at the outlet of the evacuated tube collector
are almost 15–20% higher than that of the copper collector.
At the morning times, the water temperatures at the outlet are
relatively low due to the low flux of incident solar radiation. During
the day times, water temperature increases due to the increase in
heat flux. The maximum outlet water temperature occurs at
2:00 pm.
The instantaneous collector efficiencies for the five collectors
are shown in Fig. 5. As can be seen, the highest efficiency is satis-
fied with the evacuated tube collector where the useful heat is the
highest, and the lowest efficiency is satisfied with the copper tubes
one, where the useful heat is the lowest. The maximum efficiencies
occur at 2:00 pm, and their values are 80.1, 77, 71.3, 93.5 and 78.7
for blue and black coating-selective copper, copper, evacuated
tubes and aluminum collectors respectively. Moreover, the differ-
ence in the collectors’ efficiencies diverged with the day length un-
til 2:00 pm. Also, it can be noted that the outlet water temperature
and the instantaneous collector efficiencies have the same trend.
Keeping the mass flow rate constant, thermal efficiency of the
solar collectors is mainly affected by the solar radiation which in-
creases till the solar noon. After that it starts to decrease as shown
in Fig. 6 [19].
The average efficiency for the collectors is presented in Fig. 7. It
is clear that the evacuated tube solar collector has the highest effi-
ciency, followed by black and blue coated solar collectors. The alu-
minum collector comes in the fourth place. The lowest efficiency is
reserved for the copper collector.
Despite their lower efficiency, copper and aluminum solar col-
lectors are widely used owing mainly to their lower cost, which
is a key factor in promoting the use of solar energy worldwide
and behind it renewable energies in general. Of course, other
parameters play a key role in selecting the proper solar collectors,
for example the size of application. For relatively large scale appli-
cations such as public swimming pools, factories a massive number
of plates or collectors is used covering vast areas and costing more
money to setup, but considering both high initial and running cost
for heating water in such facilities makes the utilization of high
efficiency solar systems a reasonable selection since they assure
high energy saving and a short pay-back period. Also it is to be
noted that, low quality systems can cause problems in the long
term regarding their maintenance and the large number of collec-
tors used.
Smaller scale applications -such as residential sector-needs
relatively lower unit cost with acceptable efficiency for domestic
hot water. These two factors are the most important for choosing
a domestic solar water heater. It is to be mentioned that solar
719
Heat exchangers cost (JD) Total cost (JD) Payback period
1600 164,600 2.2
1600 108,700 1.5
1600 143,350 1.9
1600 150,350 2.0
1600 145,100 1.9
collectors’ maintenance is considered very important in selecting
solar collectors. Reasonable cost and efficiency of both evacuated
tubes and aluminum collectors – with favor in efficiency to evacu-
ated tubes collector – make them the most suitable to be used in
domestic hot water applications.
4. Feasibility study of heating the Hashemite University
swimming pool
The experimental study for different solar collectors available in
the local market is used to study the feasibility of replacing the
Hashemite University swimming pool heating system with a solar
one. The Hashemite University has a swimming pool with a 772 m3
volume. The cost of heating this swimming pool is 74,460 JD. The
required data for studying the potential of using solar water heat-
ing system at the Hashemite University is summarized in Tables 6
and 7.
Table 7 shows that using a solar system is an excellent solution
for heating the Hashemite University swimming pool. The payback
period varies between 1.5 and 2.2 years according to the solar col-
lector used. The payback period is 1.5, 1.9, 1.9, 2.0 and 2.2 for alu-
minum, copper, evacuated tube, blue and black coated collectors
respectively. In spite that aluminum collectors has the lowest pay-
back period. It is not recommended to use them for large applica-
tions like heating a swimming pool due. Aluminum Solar collectors
are used frequently in domestic water heating due to their lowest
price. Based on the analysis of the solar collectors, not only the
payback period, it is recommended to use evacuated tube solar col-
lectors or copper collectors for the Hashemite University swim-
ming pool with a payback period of 1.9 years.
5. Conclusions
Various experiments were conducted in order to characterize
the overall performance of different types of solar collectors as
used in the local Jordanian market. Evacuated tube solar collector
has the highest efficiency, followed by black and blue coated solar
collectors. The aluminum collector comes in the fourth place. The
lowest efficiency is reserved for the copper collector. For heating
the Hashemite University swimming pool it is recommended to
use the evacuated tube collectors with a payback period of
1.9 years.
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