fairfolio
Saved Projects

Solar Water Collector: Effect of Collector Diameter, Tilt, and Cover Material on Efficiency

CSEF · 2015 Alternative Energy (Junior Division Only)

Heaven A. Williams · Crawford Academy, Van Nuys, Los Angeles County

Overview

Objectives/Goals The purpose of this project was to explore the impact of copper tube diameter, tilt, and cover material on the efficiency of a homemade solar water collector. Methods/Materials Two identical solar collector boxes were built with aluminum sheet absorbers at the base. Effectiveness of three different copper tubes (inside diameters, 1.27cm; 1.9050cm; 2.5400cm) was compared. These three different diameter copper tubes had the same length and parallel riser design. Two solar collectors with two different diameter copper tubes were tested at a time, with collectors always facing south to maximize the amount of solar energy collected. Six additional tests compared the effectiveness of two identical solar collectors (inside diameters, 1.27cm) mounted at different angles. In six final tests, the water collectors were covered with different transparent materials (acrylic sheet and glass) to test for efficiency. Results Results of the first six tests showed that the most effective copper tube had the smallest diameter (1.27cm). The acrylic sheet performed better than ordinary glass, always having the highest temperature increase. In six final tests, the solar collector mounted at an angle equal to the latitude of the test site's geographical location performed best. Conclusions/Discussion These results suggests that perhaps the 1.27cm copper tube used for this experiment, with increased number of riser tubes, decreased spacing between the risers, and an increased water collector surface area would perhaps maximize the efficiency of a collector. Further investigation to explore the impact of increased number of riser tubes, increased solar water collector surface area, and decreased spacing between riser tubes, using the 1.27cm copper tube should be explored.

Summary statement

The impact of copper tube diameter, tilt, and cover material on the efficiency of a homemade solar water collector.

Help received

Mr. Luke Rinard, an engineer, provided some guidance. Mr. Henry Guerrero soldered the copper tubes.

Competition history

  • CSEF 2015 Alternative Energy (Junior Division Only) · Entry J0223

Resources

Related projects

Closest projects by meaning, across every fair and year in the corpus.

Browse more like this

Source: California Science & Engineering Fair public projects

Save projects to your library

Sign in with Google to keep track of projects you find interesting, organized into folders. An account also raises your daily allowance for “Has this been done?”, and lets you create a key for the MCP server with a much higher limit than anonymous use. Browsing stays public.

Continue with Google