Author: C. T. HallPublisher:
ISBN:
Category : Solar collectors
Languages : en
Pages : 39
Book Description
Solar thermal flat plate collector technology is well established, with a strong manufacturing base already existing in Australia. Flat plate collectors are not widely used for high temperature (greater than 100 deg.C) applications. Take-off of the market is expected after 1985. A recent development by CSIRO Division of Energy Technology is the slat convection suppression device (CSD). It has been shown that North-South slats perform as well as honeycomb structures, and at collector tilt angles greater than 25 deg., the performance is independent of the tilt angle. A prototype high temperature 2m2 collector was designed with an aspect ratio of 12, using FEP Teflon (by DU PONT) Type 50A as the slat material. For such a collector, approximately 23m2 of Teflon is required, at an approximate cost of $40.00. For collectors with aspect ratios of 6 (e.g. retrofit of medium temperature collectors), the additional material cost would be approximately $20.00. The cost of materials will have a greater influence than labour and equipment overheads on the cost of collectors with slat CSD's. Retrofitting of medium temperature collectors with CSD's will not be cost effective, since the installed cost would be increased by approximately 50%. Similarly for collectors manufactured with a CSD (aspect ratio = 6). Based on a typical model of costing for our manufacturing industry, the cost of high temperature collectors with CSD's could be $215m(-2), compared with the current high temperature flat plate collector cost of approximately $135m(-2) The CSIRO flat plate collector with slat CSD is the most cost effective collector for load temperatures in the range of 80 deg.C to 120 deg.C. The temperature range of 80 deg.C - 120 deg.C would mostly suit commercial applications. The market potential has been estimated at a yearly average of 240,000m2 between 1986 and 2000.