EXPERIMENTAL-STUDY OF THE PERFORMANCE OF A SOLAR COLLECTOR COOLED BY HEAT PIPES

This paper describes the performance of a flat-plate solar collector c ooled by a set of heat pipes designed and manufactured locally to work at low-temperature conditions equal to that of the flat plate solar c ollectors. Efficiencies and quantities of energy transferred to a wate r storage tank were calculated and found to be comparable to those obt ained using a water-cooled solar collector. The efficiency of such a c ollector depends on time of day, solar intensity, ambient temperature and flat-plate mean temperature. Efficiency was studied as a dependent variable on the mentioned parameters and analysed in different figure s, then compared with the commonly used water-cooled collector.