Performance study on evacuated tube solar collector using therminol D-12 as heat transfer fluid coupled with parabolic trough

Fossil fuels and electrical energy are widely used for instant hot water generation in rural and urban areas. Also, conventional solar water heaters do not support instant hot water generation because of various problems. A new system with evacuated tube collector using synthetic oil as heat transfer fluid coupled with parabolic trough is developed and studied experimentally for instant hot water generation in the presence of low solar irradiance. Among the different grades of therminol, therminol D-12 is chosen for the study because of its thermal stability. Parabolic trough is coupled to evacuated tube to enhance the flow as well as heating characteristics of therminol. Heating efficiency and temperature characteristics are determined for the newly developed system under low solar irradiance conditions. Instant hot water can be produced by the new system at a temperature of 60 degrees C in the presence of low solar radiation. This newly developed system has the ability to check the fossil fuel consumption and electrical energy consumption for instant hot water generation in household applications. The stability of the heat transfer fluid is also ensured by repeated experiments. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.