PERFORMANCE EVALUATION OF DUAL-ABSORBER WITH DOUBLE CONCENTRATOR SOLAR WATER HEATER

Abstract

The growing global demand for clean and sustainable energy has intensified research into improving the efficiency of solar thermal systems. Solar water heaters, while established, often suffer from performance limitations due to reliance on direct insolation alone. This paper presents a performance evaluation with respect to efficiency of a solar water heater enhanced with double absorber plates and concentrators. The research involves two solar collectors, two plane mirror concentrators, a water circulation system, and two storage parts. Two thermometers were used to measure temperatures, and the intensity of the solar radiation was measured using a solar power meter (TES 1333). Plots of Temperature against Time and Average Power against time were made for all the readings taken. The efficiencies were obtained for two collectors with reflectors; two collectors without reflectors and the respective values are 43.4% and 36.7%. The advantage of using the concentrating mirror is evidently clear for its ability to improve the efficiency by 6.7%, demonstrating a significant and practical method for enhancing solar thermal collection.