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 100oC. The main components associated with Flat Plate Collector are top cover, absorber plate 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 with 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 emitted 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 established that the significance of coating the flat plate collector is technically and economically viable 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