Title: Design of Solar Thermal Collector (Flat Plate)

Task : Flat Plate Collector Design:

Design a flat plate solar thermal collector with the best performance you can reasonably achieve for the following conditions:

College Park MD, area 1mx2m, facing due south, inclined 30deg. above horizontal, at 1pm eastern daylight savings time on June 21, water inlet temperature 50C, water outlet temperature of 60C and answer the following questions:

Questions for Task:

1) What is the solar time?

2) Under what (incident) angle does the solar radiation hit the collector surface?

3) What is the incident solar power on the outside of the glass surface and at the outer range of the earth's atmosphere?

4) What is the thermal power for given water in- and outlet temperatures (kW)?

5) How do you expect the collector efficiency to change when the water inlet temperature increases/decreases? How does the collector efficiency change as function of insulation thickness on the underside? Show plots.

Assume the collector surface temperature is the average of the water inlet and outlet temperatures, single pane plate glass, fin efficiency 1.0; discuss what losses can be neglected.

Include below in HW#2 report;

1) Objective (in your own words)

2) Abstract 250 (in your own words: objective, work done, summary of outcome)

3) List of Assumptions

4) Results and Discussion of Results with Figures, Tables etc. as needed

5) List of References

6) Include explaining objective, assumptions, work done and results and discussion, and work in comparison to that of others!

Textbooks

David J.C. MacKay, Sustainable Energy - without the hot air. Free on Internet. Tester, et al., Sustainable Energy: Choosing Among Options, 2nd Edition, ISBN 9780262017473, MIT Press, 2012