balbo_luigi
In this lessons we will understand how the frequency of water in a solar thermal panel can affect its efficiency.
We are using a 1.13 x 2.42 m solar thermal panel and we are sending in a constant amount of water at a certain temperature, will the efficiency of the panel be higher with a higher frequency of input water?
Equipment:
-Laptop with specific software for measuring water temperature
-2 USB connected temperature measurement devices
-1.13 x 2.42 m solar thermal panel
-Water supplies to be sent in panel
Execution
We will supply the panel with some moderately warm water (24° C) and we will measure how much time does it take to the output water to fill a 700cc container, then we will measure the difference between the input water and the output water temperature, right after that we will use the following formula in order to obtain the quantity of energy released in joules every second: ((700cc x ∆temp.) / t) x 4,18, we will collect different measurements with different refill times values.
1) refill time=40 sec.
∆ temp. = 18° C
((700 x 18) / 40) x 4,18 = 1316 J/s
theoretically the energy released every second by a solar thermal panel is 2444 J/s, so with a ∆temp. of 40 s its efficiency will be of 53,7 %.
2) refill time=5,3 sec
∆temp.=3°C
energy/s = 1684 J/s
efficiency = 68,7 %
3) refill time=1 sec
∆temp.=1°C
efficiency=79,6%
Conclusion
As supported by our data, there is a strong correlation between the refill time of the output water and the efficiency of the solar thermal panel.
Comments