EXPERIMENTAL STUDY ON SOLAR FLAT PLATE COLLECTOR WITH AND WITHOUT COATING

Solar Flat Plate Collector is widely used for domestic hot - water, space heating and cooling, for applications requiring fluid temperature less than 100 o C. The main components associate d with Flat Plate Collector are top cover, absorber pla te with tubes. The objective of this paper is to make a comparative study of change in temperature, useful energy and thermal efficiency for two different collectors one w ith copper as absorber plate and another with black chromium coated copper as absorber plate. The absorber plate is selectively coated to have high absorptivity. The absorptivity of black chromium paint is about 0.92 to 0.96. It absorbs radiation energy e mitted by the sun and converted into thermal energy of the fluid. For comparative study, the two flat plate collectors set ups are fabricated. It is establish ed that the significance of coating the flat plate collector is technically and economically viabl e for gaining heat from radiation through flat plate solar collectors. From experimentation , it is observed that the change in temperature, useful heat gain and thermal efficiency are higher for coated absorber plate.