Description
This education and research project is being conducted through funding from The Greater Kansas City Area Education and Research Foundation.
I am currently researching and designing a solar heat collector for the purpose of heating water for household use. I am designing the system to be scalable so that it can eventually be used for heating in the winter time.
Fundamentals
Solar heating systems basically absorb heat through a device called a "collector" and store the heat in a storage tank or a "thermal mass." This is normally done by circulating a "heat transfer medium" through the collector, where it absorbs heat, then through the thermal mass where it stores the heat. Heat is then transferred to the working material where it is used for heating water and air. Once the heat in the transfer fluid has been used up, the transfer fluid is circulated back to the storage tank for re-heating by the collector.
The collector is an important part of the heating system. The collector must convert sunlight into usable heat that can be stored in the thermal mass. There are numerous collectors on the market that use all kinds of elaborate coatings and materials to accomplish this goal. I have researched numerous types of collectors and have decided that I will test some of the more simple coatings and work my way up to the more complex ones.
Goals
As a primary goal, I want to make this system easy to maintain and easy to repair. Many systems in general have a high "lock in" factor...many manufacturers use proprietary parts so that you have to buy from them and only them. I am designing this system to use as many common parts as possible so that repair and expansion is economically feasible.