Optimizing the Efficiency of Solar Flat Plate Collector with Trapezoidal Reflector

Solar flat plate collectors are the most vital parts of a solar heating system. The collector plate absorbs the energy from the sun and transforms this radiation into heat and then transmit this heat into a fluid, it can either water or air. This research paper proposes a new technology to enhance the performance of the solar flat plate collector. A trapezoidal solar reflector is connected with the flat plate collector to enhance the amount of sunlight which hits the collector plate surface. The trapezoidal reflector concentrates both the direct and diffused radiation of the sun towards the flat plate collector. To maximize the concentration of incident radiation the trapezoidal reflector was permitted to change its inclination with the direction of sunlight. A prototype of a solar water heating system with trapezoidal reflector was constructed and achieved the improvement of collector plate efficiency by around 12%-13%. Thus the current solar heating system has the best thermal performance compared to the existing systems.