A new type of flat plate solar collector was utilized for heating fuel oil.
In a previous work, two identical flat plate collectors of the conventiona
l fin tube configuration were investigated. One collector was filled with f
uel oil, and the other was filled with water. It was found that the efficie
ncy of the fuel oil collector was 25% less than that of the water collector
. In this work, two collectors were tested. One was the same conventional w
ater collector, and the other was a trickle collector whose working fluid w
as fuel oil. It was found that the efficiency of the fuel oil collector was
15-19% less than that of the water collector.
Comparing the results of this work with those of the previous one, it was f
ound that the efficiency of the fuel oil-trickle collector is 4-9% larger t
han that of a conventional one filled with fuel oil. It is concluded that a
considerable portion of the efficiency lost formerly due to changing the w
orking fluid from water to fuel oil in the conventional collector was almos
t regained by changing the collector type to be a trickle one. (C) 2001 Els
evier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.