• Focusing or concentrating systems can be used for electric power generation when not
used for heating or cooling
• Little or no anti freeze is required to protect the absorber in a concentrator system
whereas the entire solar energy collection surface requires anti freeze protection in a flat
plate collector
Disadvantages
• Out of the beam and diffuse solar radiation components, only beam component is
collected in case of focusing collectors because diffuse component cannot be reflected
and is thus lost.
• In some stationary reflecting systems it is necessary to have a small absorber to track
the sun image; in others the reflector may have to be adjustable more than one position if
year round operation is desired; in other words costly orienting systems have to be used to
track the sun.
• Additional requirements of maintenance particular to retain the quality of reflecting
surface against dirt, weather, oxidation etc.
• Non –uniform flux on the absorber whereas flux in flat-plate collectors in uniform.
• Additional optical losses such as reflectance loss and the intercept loss, so they
introduce additional factors in energy balances.
• High initial cost.
Solar Air Heaters
Air stream is heated by the back side of the collector plate in flat plate collector. Fins
attached to the plate increase the contact surface. The back side of the collector is heavily
insulated with mineral wool or some other material. If the size of collector is large, a
blower is used to draw air into the collector and transmit the hot air to dryer.
The most favorable orientation of a collector for heating only is facing due south at an
inclination angle to the horizontal equal to the latitude plus 150. The use of air as the heat
transport fluid eliminates both freezing and corrosion problems and small air leaks are of
less concern than water leaks
Disadvantages:
1. Need of handling larger volumes of air than liquids due to low density of air as
working substance.
2. Thermal capacity of the air is low.
Department of Electrical Engineering, Veer Surendra Sai University of Technology Burla Page 38
3. They have relatively high fluid circulation costs (especially if the rock heat storage
unit is not carefully designed)
4. They have relatively large volumes of storage (roughly three times as much volume as
for water heat-storage)
5. They have a higher noise level.
6. The system has difficulty of adding conventional absorption air-conditioners to air
systems
7. The space is required for ducting.
Types of Air Heaters
1. Non porous absorber in which air stream does not flow through the absorber plate
2. Porous absorber that includes slit and expanded material, transpired honey comb and
over lapped glass plate
1. Non-porous absorber plate type collectors: A non-porous absorber may be cooled by
the air stream flowing over both sides of the plate. In most of the designs, the air flows
behind the absorbing surface. Air flow above the upper surface increases the convection
losses from the cover plate and therefore is not recommended if the air inlet temperature
rise at the collector are large.
Transmission of the solar radiation through the transparent cover system and its
absorption is identical to that of a liquid type flat-plate collector. To improve collection
efficiency selective coating may beapplied provided there is no much cost.
Due to low heat transfer rates, efficiencies are lower than liquid solar heaters under the
same radiation intensity and temperature conditions. Performance of air heaters is
improved by:
(a) Roughening the rear of the plate to promote turbulence and improve the convective
heat transfer coefficient
(b) Adding fins to increase heat transfer surface. Usually turbulence is also increased
which enhances the convective heat transfer. Absorption of solar radiation is improved
due to surface radioactive characteristics and the geometry of the corrugations, which
help in trapping the reflected radiation.
2. Collectors with porous absorbers: The main drawback of the non-porous absorber plate
is the necessity of absorbing all incoming radiation over the projected area from a thin
layer over the surface, which is in the order of a few microns. Unless selective coatings
are used, radiative losses from the absorber plate are excessive, therefore, the collection
Department of Electrical Engineering, Veer Surendra Sai University of Technology Burla Page 39
