PERFORMANCE OF THERMOSYPHON EFFECT USING DIFFERENT FLAT PLATE COLLECTORS OF SOLAR WATER HEATER

• Main Author: NORUL AHSANAH AULIA BINTI MOHAMAD MAHANI, NORUL AHSANAH AULIA
• Format: Thesis
• Language: English; English; English
• Published: 2024
• Subjects: TA164 Bioengineering
• Online Access: http://eprints.uthm.edu.my/12636/

Solar thermal energy has become one of the most sustainable and low-carbon technologies for empowering our future water heater systems. Nowadays, water heating accounts for the largest part of household energy use. The thermosyphon and pump circulation types Solar Water Heater (SWH) are the two main categories previous studies have classified. Flat plate collectors (FPCs) are among the most used solar systems especially for thermosyphon effect. Most water heater systems depend on electricity due to the low efficiency of solar thermal collectors. Thus, this research was to analyse the most efficient Flat Plate Collector (FPC) in terms of heat absorption on the Thermosiphon Effect due to energy collection by different colours, materials and glazing. This experiment uses a Solar Energy Trainer LLC-SET-2 model which was provided with black, white, copper, polypropylene, single and double glazing FPC. The trainer was used to compare the impact of the several forms of FPC on heat absorption towards water temperature and FPC efficiency, including the optimised time of the Thermosiphon Effect in the SWH. A MATLAB software was used for data analysis. The experiment was conducted over a period of 5 days, with each day dedicated to 7 hours of investigation at Universiti Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia (UTHM) Pagoh Campus, Muar. The research shows black FPC has the highest average water temperature value with the optimised time of Thermosiphon Effect was at 2.15 pm with 61.1°C. Black FPC was also the efficient FPC in terms of colour with efficiency of 9.3% compared to white FPC with 8.2%. Next, copper FPC and double glazing FPC show the highest average water temperature with their optimised time at 2.15 pm with 61.2°C and 12.00 noon at 68.1°C, respectively. The efficient FPC in terms of material and glazing are copper with 10.9% and double glazing with 11.15%. Developing the most efficient FPCs would improve society's knowledge and lead to a better lifestyle as it is an eco-friendly energy, and future design are suggested to be easily adapted to meet the requirements and conditions.