Experimental and Numerical Investigation of Flat Plate Solar Water Heater

As the world is developing, energy consumption is also increasing very rapidly. Conventional energy sources are able to fulfill todays energy demand, but they have their own disadvantages. Main conventional sources for energy production are the fossil fuels till now. But these fuels are available in limited quantity as well as the environmental issues make the world think for the renewable energy sources. The weaknesses of conventional sources can be eliminated by renewable energy sources. Among the available renewable energy sources, solar is one of the most promising areas nowadays, in which solar-operated water heating system is most widely used in thermal applications. Solar water heater is not only eco-friendly, but also it requires less maintenance and operational cost. This paper aims to modify the simple solar water heater with V-trough reflectors and compare the experimental results with ANSYS software. The results obtained through the experimentation are quite good to promote the inclusion of V-trough reflector with SSWH. The efficiencies are 79.5%, 91%, and 84% while using V-trough reflector at an inclination of 65, 70, and 75 degrees with absorber plate compared to the 78% efficiency of SSWH during typical days of experimentation.