TEST FACILITY FOR QUASI DYNAMIC COLLECTOR TESTS FOR THE CHARACTERIZATION OF THERMAL SOLAR COLLECTORS IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE INTERNATIONAL NORMS

Abstract: A fundamental pre-requisite for the characterization and quantification of thermal solar collectors is the test for the determination of the parameters of the efficiency curve of that collectors. In the international context standard for the respective test procedures are given by the norms ISO 9806 and EN 12975-1. Currently there is no test facility in Brazil, that is certified according to these norms. In view of a future certification a collector test stand able to perform tests in accordance to EN 12975-1 is under construction at the LABSOLAR Solar Energy Laboratory, (department of mechanical engineering at the Federal University of Santa Catarina. EN 12975-1 is a dynamic test procedure that allows for shorter time requirements than the static test described by ISO 9806 which demands very strict climatic conditions and thus need excessive time. On the other hand the dynamic test requires a somewhat more demanding effort for the parameter extraction. A main objective of the present work is the discussion of the test procedures in view the requirements of the accordance of the sensors involved and the of quality of the test results, i.e. the uncertainty of the collector parameters. The end use accuracy of the procedure is discussed using the uncertainty of the expected annual energy gain of the collector. Key words: solar collectors, efficiency measurement, multilinear regression. 1