F. Hussain

Fabrication and Irradiance Mapping of a Low Cost Solar Simulator for Indoor Testing of Solar Collector

The fabrication and testing of a solar simulator for indoor testing of solar collector are described. Consisting of Philips 500 W halogen lamps with built-in reflector, which are arranged at 30 cm apart, the system covers a test area suitable for a solar collector of size 120 cm by 53 cm. The height of the lamps above the solar collector under test is set to 160 cm. Measurement of the uniformity of the irradiance over the test area has been made. Four sets of irradiance mapping were performed at 466, 580, 686, and 804 W/m2 , yielding at each point the irradiance uniformity percentage of 8.9, 7.6, 6.9, and 7.8%, respectively. The infrared radiation produced by the lamps was filtered by air flowing over the test area.

A study of PV/T collector with honeycomb heat exchanger

This paper present a study of a single pass photovoltaic/thermal (PV/T) solar collector combined with honeycomb heat exchanger. A PV/T system is a combination of photovoltaic panel and solar thermal components in one integrated system. In order to enhance the performance of the system, a honeycomb heat exchanger is installed horizontally into the channel located under the PV module. Air is used as the heat remover medium. The system is tested with and without the honeycomb at irradiance of 828 W/m2 and mass flow rate spanning from 0.02 kg/s to 0.13 kg/s. It is observed that the aluminum honeycomb is capable of enhancing the thermal efficiency of the system efficiently. At mass flow rate of 0.11 kg/s, the thermal efficiency of the system without honeycomb is 27% and with honeycomb is 87 %. Throughout the range of the mass flow rate, the electrical efficiency of the PV module improved by 0.1 %. The improved design is suitable to be further investigated as solar drying system and space heating.

Designs of Various Hybrid Photovoltaic-Thermal (PV/T) Solar Collectors

One of the crucial factors that affect the popularity of photovoltaic module is its relatively low efficiency. Until today, commercially available photovoltaic module efficiency claimed by manufacturers is from 6 to 16 %. However, the claimed efficiency is at a temperature of 25 °C. In reality, especially for countries with hot weather, their ambient temperature during a sunny day would be more than 35 °C. The rising of the PV temperature will result in the drop of module efficiency. By calculation, it was concluded that, for typical silicon-based PV, the efficiency of the cell would decrease 0.5 % with 1 °C increase in temperature [1].

Design of Various Hybrid Single-Pass Photovoltaic–Thermal (PV/T) Solar Collector

In this chapter, five different designs of hybrid photovoltaic–thermal (PV/T) solar collectors are fabricated and their performance are evaluated. All designs are based on the concept of single-pass collector. Designs of heat exchangers for the collectors include honeycomb, stainless steel wool, V-groove, ∇-groove, and rectangular groove. The advantages of the collectors are their capability to generate both electricity and heat simultaneously. The objective of this study is to compare the performance of all PV/T collectors. All systems were tested at irradiance of ~ 800 W/m2 with mass flow rate spanning from 0.01 to 0.13 kg/s.