SOLAR WATER HEATING TECHNOLOGY AND ITS CURRENT EXPLOITS IN INDIA- A OVERVIEW C. Vijayanand*and M. Singaravelu** *Ph.D Scholar, #* Professor, Department of BioFnergy Agricultural Engineering College and Research institute, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore - 641003, Tamil Nadu, India. *eomail : vjayeeeanand@ gmail.com Keywords: Flat plate, Evacuated tube, Collector, Heat INTRODUCTION ‘The use of hot water for bathing and other purposes has become an integral part of modern lifestyles. With the abundant availability of sunfight in our country, even in colder regions, solar water heating is a natural solution. It has been established that the investment in. solar water heaters pays back through saved electricity costs in 4 to 5 years and thereafter the hhot water becomes available for free over and the lifetime of the equipment of more than 15 years. Solar water heater is a system that utilizes solar energy to heat water. It has a system that is installed on a roof top ot open space where it can get sunlight and the energy from the sun is then used to heat water and store it in an insulated tank, The system is not connected to electricity supply and thus does not have an on-off switch, MATERIALS AND METHODS. Solar water heaters are available in two different technologies known as Flat Plate Collector (FPC) and Evacuated Tube Collector (ETC). Both FPC and ETC products are available in India, The high grade steel is rolled, welded to form the hot water storage tank of the solar water heater. The tanks of various capacities ranging from 100 to 1, 00,000 L. capacity are manufactured. The tanks manufactured are dipped in nitric acid for the removal of rust and corrosion. ‘The copper fins are attached to the riser tubes which are connected to the header tube at the top and bottom of the collector. The collector's inner corrugated sheets and riser tubes, header tubes are coated with selective absorber coating of black chrome nickel paint for higher heat absorption. The glass covering used in the collector is a toughened glass cover of 0.3 and 0.4 mm thickness. The hot water tank is wrapped in glass wool and then it is placed inside a larger steel tank which enables the storage of hot water for longer time periods. Insulation of 10 em thick is recommended as it would be between ifthe insulation also could contribute to the structural rigidity of the collector, but more rigid insulating materials are often less stable than glass-wool ‘The pressure testing of the hot water storage tank and the collector tubes with water and air at various pressures are carried out. The leak tests are also conducted for the checking, of the quality of hot water storage tanks and the collector tubes. Water is filled into the hot water storage tank and pressurized air of pressure10 kaf/em* is supplied. In the collector skeleton, water is filled and pressurized air of 6 kaf/em is supplied to ensure that there is no leakage of water from the tank and collector skeleton, Black chromium nickel-plated copper is the selective surface that is very durable, highly resistant to humidity or oxidizing atmospheres and extreme ‘temperatures while being able to retain its selective properties. Typical values for a selective (GREEN FUELS FROM BIOMASS : BIOREFINERY APPROACH 76surface are 0.90(4) absorption and 0.10 thermal emissivity (ap). The efficiency of any solar absorber depends on its ability to transform sunlight into heat. High absorption of solar radiation is a basic condition and can be achieved quite easily. The challenge is to capture the solar energy inside the material The preferred characteristics of selective coatings are, high absorption € low reflection) in the range of the solar radiation (mainly visible light) and Low emission (= high reflection) in the range of heat radiation (infrared radiation) Parameters affecting the efficiency of solar water heaters (Qu) Useful heat energy collected by water, Win? Qu=FR [(da)e ITt- UL (TFIM-TAM)] Where ‘TAM is the mean ambient temperature, °C [mean values for any 2 consecutive times] Qu is Useful heat energy collected by water, W/m? FR is heat removal factor, dimensionless. TRIM is mean temperature of fluid at inlet ofthe collector, °C TEM = (TFM1 + TFM2)/2 ‘TFIM = (TFIMII + TFIM21) /2 = collector efficiency factor, dimensionless. FR =(M Cp/ UL) [1-Exp (-F UL/M Cp)] Where mis specific mass flow rate of water, kg/ m*S. Cpis the specific heat of water = 4.187 kikg K. Collector efficiency factor, Actual useful heat collection rate Actual useful heat collection rate re ee a Useful heat collection rate obtainable with entire collector surface F=0u/TFM at average fluid temperature Where Qu is the actual useful het collection rate, ki/kg ‘TFM is the useful heat collection rate obtainable with entire collector surface at average fluid temperature Heat removal factor, (FR) Actual useful heat collection rate F Useful heat collection obtainable with entire collector surface at temperature of the fluid entering the collector (GREEN FUELS FROM BIOMASS : BIOREFINERY APPROACH 7FR=Qu/TFIM Where Qu is the Actual useful heat collection rate, ki/kg. TFIM is the collector surface at temperature of the fluid entering the collector, °C Overall heat transfer coefficient from fluid to atmosphere FP — — Coefficient of heat transfer from the absorber plate to atmosphere Uo/UL P Where Uo is the overall heat transfer coefficient from fluid to atmosphere, W/m UL is the overall heat loss coefficient, Wim? RESULTS AND DISCUSSION Solar water heaters available in market start from size of 100 L per day. The other sizes that are available are 200, 250, 300 and 500 L. per day. The maximum area required for the collectors to be installed on roof top/open area is shown in Table 1. A 100 LPD water heater can save yearly electricity units of 1000 in northern and eastern India, 1500 and 1250 in southern and western India respectively. Table 1. Capacity of solar water heater Capacity Area in sq. | Area in sq. (liters mm. for ETC | m. for FPC per day) | i LPD * ™ 00 150 z x00 | 300 a 350 [35 5 300 | a5 3 330 [750 10 The LPD mentioned above is liters of hot water at 60-70 °C. A 100 L size is suitable for a family of four members. An important step towards reaching the rural Indians, where 70 % of the Indian population live in, with the national solar subsidy scheme of the MNRE. System with both collector technologies flat plate and vacuum tube - will be eligible for either subsidies or subsidized bank loans, which is 30 % subsidy on the benchmark costs or a low- interest loan (5 % interest rate) for 80% of the benchmark costs. CONCLUSION Solar thermal technologies hold significant promise for India with high solar insolation of 46.5 kWh’ m? /day for an average of 280 sunny days. Solar water heating system is a (GREEN FUELS FROM BIOMASS : BIOREFINERY APPROACH 78commercially viable and technologically mature product. Yel, against a technical potential of 45 million km? of collector area only a little over 2.5 million km* of collector area has been installed. This works out to a little more than 2 m* for 1000 people as against countries like Israel and Cyprus, which have over 500 m* for 1000 people. In spite of Government subsidized loans available to finance the equipment costs, the penetration of solar water heaters remains far below potential. One of the barriers that have been identified is the lack of organized information with users about the different technologies available, the selection and sizing of equipment, evaluation of costs and questions concerning installation, maintenance and trouble- shooting. REFERENCES ‘Anon.(2010), User's handbook on solar water heaters, Global solar water heating project, Ministy of New and Renewable Energy Resources. 1 = 3, ‘Sokhatme.P. 2008). Solar energy: Principles of thermal collection and storage. Tata MeGraw hill, 7:101-167, Singaravelu.M.(1996). Heat and mass transfer in forced convection solar dryer for its. Ph.D Thesis submited to TamilNadu Agriculture ersity, Coimbatore (GREEN FUELS FROM BIOMASS : BIOREFINERY APPROACH cz