A comparative study on the performance of a novel triangular solar air collector with tilted transparent cover plate

The application of solar air collector (SAC) in rural residence is beneficial to the realization of clean heating in rural areas and improvement of the thermal comfort in the rural residence, but the available covered area for the SAC on the south wall of rural residence is limited. In this research, a novel triangular solar air collector (TSAC) with a tilted transparent cover plate is proposed. With the same south wall covered area, the TSAC can receive more solar irradiance, which improves the heat collecting power. A mathematical model of the TSAC is established. Experiments are conducted to validate the model. The performances of the TSAC and the flat plate solar air collector (FSAC) with the same perforated corrugated absorber (PCA) are compared and analyzed under different operation conditions. Results indicate that: (1) The collecting power per unit south wall covered area (CPUWA) of the TSAC with the 60 degrees transparent cover plate (TSAC 60 degrees) is 100 similar to 130 W/m(2) higher than that of the FSAC. (2) The thermal efficiency of the TSAC increases faster with the increase of solar irradiance, due to the large area of transparent cover plate. (3) During the heating period, the heat collection capacity and solar fraction of the TSAC 60 degrees are 24.3% and 11.7% higher than those of the FSAC, respectively.