1-s2.0-S0306261918300011-main.pdf (1.87 MB)
Performance and operational effectiveness of evacuated flat plate solar collectors compared with conventional thermal, PVT and PV panels
journal contribution
posted on 2018-01-23, 11:04 authored by Roger Moss, Paul Henshall, Farid Arya, Stan Shire, Trevor Hyde, Philip EamesPhilip EamesThe concept of an evacuated flat plate (EFP) collector was proposed over 40 years ago but, despite its professed advantages, very few manufacturers have developed commercial versions. This situation suggests both technical difficulties in manufacturing a competitively-priced sealed for life panel and a lack of awareness of the benefits of such panels.
This paper demonstrates an evacuated flat plate simulation that closely models experimental efficiency measurements. Having established the validity of the model, it compares published data for a commercial EFP collector with predictions for an optimal design to investigate whether any further efficiency improvement might be possible. The optimised design is then evaluated against alternative solar energy devices by modelling a number of possible applications. These comparisons should inform choices about solar options for delivering heat: EFP collectors are well-suited to some of these applications.
An evacuated flat plate solar thermal collector with a 0.5x0.5 m absorber was tested under a solar simulator. The test conditions spanned the range 200
Funding
The authors are grateful to the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) for funding this work as part of a collaborative programme between Warwick, Loughborough and Ulster universities, reference EP/K009915/1, EP/K010107/1 and EP/K009230/1.
History
School
- Mechanical, Electrical and Manufacturing Engineering
Published in
Applied EnergyVolume
216Pages
588 - 601Citation
MOSS, R. ...et al., 2018. Performance and operational effectiveness of evacuated flat plate solar collectors compared with conventional thermal, PVT and PV panels. Applied Energy, 216, pp.588-601.Publisher
Elsevier © The Author(s)Version
- VoR (Version of Record)
Publisher statement
This work is made available according to the conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) licence. Full details of this licence are available at: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Acceptance date
2018-01-01Publication date
2018-02-23Notes
This is an Open Access Article. It is published by Elsevier under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence (CC BY). Full details of this licence are available at: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.ISSN
0306-2619Publisher version
Language
- en