Performance Analysis of Solar Water Heater at Possible Flow Rates with and Without Phase Change Material
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.13052/dgaej2156-3306.3113Keywords:
Thermal energy storage, phase change material, solar water heater, paraffin wax, n-tricosaneAbstract
To store excess solar energy from the sun, in this project we pro-
vide phase change materials (PCM) at the bottom of the absorber plate.
Experiments were conducted in the cascaded solar water heater with
and without phase change materials at different flow rates. During the
sun-shine hours, the phase change material (PCM) absorbs latent heat
of solar energy and stores the same energy up to its melting point. Simi-
larly during off-sunshine hours, the phase change material releases the
energy, which is used to heat the water. The set up can result a higher
efficiency of the solar collector system. In this work, the paraffin wax
has been selected as a phase change material due to its low cost, easily
availability and considerable thermo-physical properties. The PCM unit
stores the heat during the sun-shine hours and supplies hot water dur -
ing the night and overcast periods. An attempt was made to produce
hot water even after sun-shine hours every day. The performance of this
PCM based thermal energy storage system is compared with conven -
tional latent heat storage system and the conclusions drawn from them
are presented. The conventional solar water heater gives better efficiency
during day time because of the energy absorbed by phase change mate-
rial. Thus a solar water heater integrated with phase change material
unit gives little better efficiency during off sun-shine hours due to the
presence of thermal energy storage system.
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