AVAILABILITY OF SOLAR ENERGY FOR AIR HEATING USING FLAT PLATE AIR SOLAR COLLECTOR.

This paper presents the availability of solar energy for air heating at Peshawar. A flat plate air solar collector with black painted aluminum absorber plate having a single glass cover was used. Outdoor testing of the collector was performed on the roof top of the lab. at U.E.T. Peshawr. The experimental setup for conducting the thermal performance tests of the solar colletor is described. The input energy to the collector was measured and the useful energy delivered by the collector was experimentally found. Mass flow rate of air through the collector was kept constant. The test was carried out for open loop operation of the collector. The effect of increasing the inlet temperature on the thermal performance of the solar collector was also investigated. The instantaneous efficiencies and the daily avaerage eficienceis are reported for two typical days. With open loop operaton of the collector the daily average thermal efficiency is 62.5% on a typical day. However, as the quality of the collected energy is improved, effieciency drops significantly. The collector optical efficiency ( FR t alpha ) and heat loss coefficient (FRUt ) are also reported.