DESIGN AND DEVELOPMENT OF LOW COST SOLAR WATER HEATING SYSTEM

B.S. PARMAR¹, ALOK GORA²*, V.M. MODI³, D.A. BOSAMIY⁴, S.L. THAKOR⁵, B.S. DEORA^6
1Centre for Natural Resources Management, SDAU, S K Nagar, Gujarat
²Department of Agricultural Engineering, C P College of Agriculture, SDAU, S K Nagar, Gujarat
³College of Renewable Energy and Environmental Engineering, SDAU, S K Nagar, Gujarat
⁴College of Renewable Energy and Environmental Engineering, SDAU, S K Nagar, Gujarat
⁵College of Renewable Energy and Environmental Engineering, SDAU, S K Nagar, Gujarat
⁶Centre for Natural Resources Management, SDAU, S K Nagar, Gujarat
* Corresponding Author : alok.gora@gmail.com

Received : 09-09-2015     Accepted : 29-10-2015     Published : 14-11-2015
Volume : 7     Issue : 9       Pages : 658 - 661
Int J Agr Sci 7.9 (2015):658-661

Keywords : Solar water heating system, Flat plate collector, Thermo-syphon, Thermal efficiency of collector
Academic Editor : Deepti Bisht, Er Nitin Kumar, Dr G K Saxena
Conflict of Interest : None declared
Acknowledgements/Funding : None declared

The adoption rate of commercially available Solar Water Heating System (SWHS) is low due to high initial investment. The use of copper in commercial SWHS increases the cost of the system. In place of copper the use of stainless steel and aluminum foil in the fabrication of solar water heater offers a reduction of material and fabrication costs. Based on the hypothesis, a Low Cost Solar Water Heating System (LCSWHS) of 100 lit/day capacity was designed and developed at the College of Renewable Energy and Environmental Engineering, SDAU, Sardarkrushinagar. Black color coated SS-202 pipes had been used for header and riser and black color coated aluminum foil has been used for the absorption of solar radiation. The average thermal efficiency of developed system was obtained 50% , which was directly proportional to the insolation intensity. The total fabrication cost of LCSWHS was Rs. 9900/- which was cheaper in comparison to commercial flat plate type system. The cost of heating one liter of water with LCSWHS was Rs. 0.09577/- while it was Rs. 0.16050/- for commercial flat plate type system. The use of LCSWHS can save Rs. 1551 /- per year over the traditional system of SWHS.