
Proceedings of ISES Solar World Congress 2007: Solar Energy and Human Settlement
594
2. PRESENT SITUATION
The basic target of solar collector testing is the
determination of the collector efficiency by measurements
under specific conditions (Duffie and Beckman, 1991). It is
noted that several models and testing methods have been
proposed by various authors (Perers, 1997). However this
study would concentrate to the testing method defined in
Standard ISO 9806-1, since this method is, at present, the
only acceptable and standardized in an international level.
According this method, the behavior of the collector can be
described by a 2 or 3-parameter single node, steady state
model n=f (
T ):
nn UT=−
or
()
nn UT UGT=− − (1)
where
()mC T T
Q
n
AG AG
−
==
(2)
The above Eq. (1) as well as the whole analysis presented
in this paper are also valid for reduced temperature
difference
T
calculated with respect to the mean
collector fluid temperature. In this case the variable
T
,
where it appears, must be replaced by
T
. During the
experimental phase of the test, the output, solar energy and
the basic climatic quantities are measured. During data
analysis, a least square fitting of the model equation is
performed on the measured data, in order to determine
parameters n
0
and U
0
or n
0
, U
1
and U
2
.
As resulting from Eq. (2), the values of the characteristic
equation parameters, as well as the respective efficiency
curves, are strongly dependent to the reference area which
would be selected for the calculations. Moreover it is
possible some confusion to take place, due to the high
number of equations and curves used for the description of
the energy identity of the solar collector. The ISO standard
defines as reference areas the gross area A
g
and the absorber
area A
A
, while the respective European Standard defines as
references areas the aperture area Aa and the absorber area
A
A
. Through the approach of ISO, the energy performance
of a solar collector is described with 8 equations and 8
curves, combining two surfaces (A
g
και A
A
), two
temperatures (
T και T ) and two types of equations (2
and 3-parameter). Taking into account both the ISO and the
EN standard, and despite the fact that they refer to the same
collector model, a total number of 12 equations and 12
efficiency curves result.
Another problem is related to the definition of the reference
area for some types of collectors, which is uncertain and at
the same time different for the two standards, pointing out
the definition of absorber area in the case of collectors with
dewar-type tubes and reflectors.
More specifically, according to the EN standard, absorber
area is equal to the projection of the actual absorber surface
to the collector plane, in other words A
A
=N×L×D, where Ν,
L and D refer respectively to the number, length and
diameter of the tubes. On the other hand, according to the
ISO standard, the absorber area equals the“…surface area
of the absorber which is designed to absorb solar
radiation…”, that is A
A
=N×L×π×D. In Fig. 1, the effects of
the surface area definition are clearly depicted through the
comparison of the results of a typical flat-plate collector, a
collector with multiple dewar-type tubes and reflector and a
single vacuum tube collector.
0
0,5
1
1,5
2
2,5
0 0,04 0,08 0,12
T* [Km
w ]
n
MT-EN
MT-ISO
ST-EN
ST-ISO
FP-EN+ISO
Fig. 1: Efficiency curves for a typical plat-plate collector
(FP), a multi-vacuum-tube collector with reflectors
(MT) and a single-vacuum-tube collector with
reflector (ST). Results are presented according to
both EN and ISO standards considering the
absorber area as reference area.
[Km w ]