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Evacuated Tube Collectors
The Evacuated Tube Collector consists of a number of rows of parallel transparent glass tubes connected to a header pipe and which are used in place of the blackened heat absorbing plate we saw in the previous flat plate collector. These glass tubes are cylindrical in shape. Therefore, the angle of the sunlight is always perpendicular to the heat absorbing tubes which enables these collectors to perform well even when sunlight is low such as when it is early in the morning or late in the afternoon, or when shaded by clouds. Evacuated tube collectors are particularly useful in areas with cold, cloudy wintry weather. Tube collectors are also more effective in Saskatchewan snow conditions compared to flat plate collectors because snow is able to pass between individual tubes and doesn’t collect as easy on the rounded surface of the tubes.
An Evacuated Tube CollectorSo how do solar evacuated tube collectors work?
Evacuated tube collectors are made up of a single or multiple rows of parallel, transparent glass tubes supported on a frame. Each individual tube varies in diameter from between 1″ (25mm) to 3″ (75mm) and between 5′ (1500mm) to 8′ (2400mm) in length depending upon the manufacturer. Each tube consists of a thick glass outer tube and a thinner glass inner tube, (called a “twin-glass tube”) or a “thermos-flask tube” which is covered with a special coating that absorbs solar energy but inhibits heat loss. The tubes are made of borosilicate or soda-lime glass, which is strong, resistant to high temperatures and has a high transmittance for solar irradiation.
Unlike flat panel collectors, evacuated tube collectors do not heat the water directly within the tubes. Instead, the air is removed or evacuated from the space between the two tubes, forming a vacuum (hence the name “evacuated tubes”). This vacuum acts as an insulator reducing any heat loss significantly to the surrounding atmosphere either through convection or radiation making the collector much more efficient than the internal insulating that flat plate collectors have to offer. With the assistance of this vacuum, evacuated tube collectors generally produce higher fluid temperatures than they’re flat plate counterparts so may become very hot in summer.
Inside each glass tube, a flat or curved aluminum or copper fin is attached to a metal heat pipe running through the inner tube. The fin is covered with a selective coating that transfers heat to the fluid that is circulating through the pipe. This sealed copper heat pipe transfers the solar heat via convection of its internal heat transfer fluid to a “hot bulb” that indirectly heats a copper manifold within the header tank. These copper pipes are all connected to a common manifold which is then connected to a storage tank, thus heating the hot water during the day. The hot water can then be used at night or the next day due to the insulating properties of the tank.
The insulation properties of the vacuum are so good that while the inner tube may be as high as 150°C, the outer tube is cooler to touch. This means that evacuated tube water heaters can perform well and can heat water to fairly high temperatures even in cold weather when flat plate collectors perform poorly due to heat loss.
Evacuated tube solar collectors are well suited to commercial and industrial hot water heating applications and can be an effective alternative to flat plate collectors for domestic space heating, especially in areas where it is often cloudy.
Evacuated tube collectors are overall more modern and more efficient compared to the standard flat plate collectors as they can extract the heat out of the air on a humid, dull overcast day and do not need direct sunlight to operate. Due to the vacuum inside the glass tube, the total efficiency in all areas is higher and there is a better performance even when the sun is not at an optimum angle. For these types of solar hot water panels, the configuration of the vacuum tube is what’s really important. There are a few different vacuum tube configurations, single-wall tubes, double-wall tubes, direct flow or heat pipe, and these differences can determine how the fluid is circulated around the solar hot water panel.
Heat Pipe Evacuated Tube Collectors
In heat pipe evacuated tube collectors, solar thermal hot water panels, a sealed heat pipe, usually made of copper to increase the collectors efficiency in cold temperatures, is attached to a heat absorbing reflector plate within the vacuum sealed tube and solar thermal hot water panels. The hollow copper heat pipe within the tube is evacuated of air but contains a small quantity of a low pressure alcohol/water liquid plus some additional additives to prevent corrosion or oxidation.
This vacuum enables the liquid to vaporize at very lower temperatures than it would normally at atmospheric pressure. When sunlight in the form of solar radiation hits the surface of the absorber plate inside the tube, the liquid in the heat pipe quickly turns into a hot vapour type gas due to the presence of the vacuum. As this gas vapour is now lighter, it rises up to the top portion of the pipe heating it up to a very high temperature.
The top part of the heat pipe, and therefore the evacuated tube is connected to a copper heat exchanger called the “manifold”. When the hot vapours still inside the sealed heat tube enter the manifold, the heat energy of the vapour is transferred to the water or glycol fluid flowing through the connecting manifold. As the hot vapour loses energy and cools, it condenses back from a gas to a liquid flowing back down the heat pipe to be reheated.
The heat pipe and therefore the evacuated tube collectors must be mounted in such a way as to have a minimum tilt angle (around 30o) in order for the internal liquid of the heat pipe to return back down to the hot absorber plate at the bottom of the tube. This process of converting a liquid into a gas and back into a liquid again continues inside the sealed heat pipe as long as the sun shines.
The main advantage of Heat Pipe Evacuated Tube Collectors is that there is a “dry” connection between the absorber plate and the manifold making installation much easier than with direct flow collectors.
Also, in the event, an evacuated tube cracking or breaking and the vacuum becoming lost the individual tube can be exchanged without emptying or dismantling the entire system. This flexibility makes heat pipe evacuated tube solar hot water collectors ideal for closed-loop solar designs as the modular assembly allows for easy installation and ability to easily expand by adding as many tubes as you want.
Our Solar Thermal & Hot Water Work
Phone: 306-531-4131
Email: info@prairiesunsolar.com
