Engineering Commons^™

Flat Plate Solar Collector Materials (And Designs With An Economic Methodology For Optimizing Collector Design), Michael L. Day '79, Donald S. Remer, Daniel Hyatt '82

All HMC Faculty Publications and Research

The desirability of specific materials and designs for conventional flat-plate solar collector components is considered. Then a methodology for choosing the most economic component is presented, consisting of a computer simulation and a rate-of-return analysis. The effect of rising conventional fuel costs is examined. Examples of using the methodology are given, based on Southern California climatic and user-demand conditions. Selective absorber-plate coatings and film inner glazing are shown to be economic, yielding a rate-of-return of 23 percent and 29 percent, respectively.