Design, construction and testing the performance of a simple solar water heater

Abstract

A growing demand for emerging alternative energy technologies is fueled by rising energy prices and decreasing energy supplies. Domestic hot water heating is an industry that continues to benefit from increased research in and improvement of solar technology and solar water heaters (SWH) are becoming increasingly attractive in sustainable development. In an effort to reduce their costs in order to make them more affordable, a solar water heater was made using the cheap readily available raw materials. This book describes the design, construction and testing the performance of a simple solar water heater with a flat plate collector of dimensions 63cm by 43.5 cm made out of a cardboard, transparent glass, aluminium foil and a coated copper tube. The results were obtained with in Makerere University and procedures were repeated for the different times of testing the performance of a simple solar water heater. These tests verified the performance of this solar water heating system and provide a baseline profile for further modifications to improve the efficiency of future solar domestic hot water heating system. xi