A solar flat plate collector is a device that absorbs solar radiation energy and transfers heat to a working medium. It is a special heat exchanger in which the working medium in the collector exchanges heat with the distant sun. A solar flat plate collector is composed of a heat-absorbing plate core, a shell, a transparent cover, insulation materials and related parts. After adding a circulating pipe and an insulation water tank, it can absorb solar radiation heat and increase the water temperature.
The solar flat plate collector is a basic component for low-temperature solar heat utilization and has always been the leading product in the world solar energy market. Flat-plate collectors have been widely used in many fields such as domestic water heating, swimming pool heating, industrial water heating, building heating and air conditioning. A water heater composed of flat-plate solar collector components is a flat-plate solar water heater. A flat-plate solar collector is mainly composed of a flat plate solar collector heat-absorbing plate, a flat plate solar collector transparent cover, a flat-plate solar collector insulation layer and a flat-plate solar collector shell.
Working Principle
The basic working principle of a flat-plate solar collector is very simple. In simple terms, sunlight shines through the transparent cover onto the heat absorber coated with an absorption layer on the surface. Most of the solar radiation energy is absorbed by the absorber, converted into heat energy, and transmitted to the working fluid in the fluid channel. In this way, the cold working fluid from the bottom entrance of the collector is heated by solar energy in the fluid channel, and the temperature gradually increases. The heated hot working fluid, with useful heat energy, exits from the upper end of the collector and is stored in the water tank for standby use, which is the useful energy gain. At the same time, due to the increase in the temperature of the heat absorber, heat is dissipated to the environment through the transparent cover and the shell, forming various heat losses of the flat solar collector.
Features
- Simple structure, flexible and delicate, easy to maintain;
- Changeable forms, easy to integrate with the building perfectly;
- Long life and stable performance;
- Anti-freeze and anti-scaling, frost and snow melting;
- Clean water quality and good for health.
Flat-plate solar collectors have simple structures, reliable operation, low cost, low heat flux density, that is, the temperature of the working fluid is also low, safe and reliable. Compared with vacuum tube solar collectors, they have strong pressure bearing capacity and large heat absorption area. They are the best choice of collector types for integrating solar energy with buildings. In the next article, we will mainly introduce the basic structure of solar flat-plate collectors.
