Experimental investigation on the performance of modified single basin double slope solar stills

An attempt was made to enhance the productivity of the still by spreading heat storage material in the basin or by focusing additional solar radiation into the still with the help of external reflector. For the purpose of conducting the study, three solar stills with identical dimensions were fabricated. They were - conventional still, still with heat storage materials and still with external reflector. The objective of the study was to investigate the efficiency of heat storage material and external reflector in improving the performance of single basin double slope solar still. The main focus was to study the rate of change of temperature parameter values and production values during the increasing and decreasing sunshine hours. In the still with reflector, the rate of increase of water temperature and distillate production was high during the increasing sunshine hours. But the still with heat storage materials sustained higher water temperature rate and production rate during declining sunshine hours. The productivity of the still with heat storage material was 23.08% higher than the conventional still. But the productivity rise in the still with reflector was 62.97%.