Development of a high performance air heater through use of an evacuated tube cover design

Conference · Tue Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 1980 · Proc. Annu. Meet. - Am. Sect. Int. Sol. Energy Soc.; (United States)

OSTI ID:6547892

Jones, D E; Shaw, L E

Development of a high performance air heater through use of an evacuated tube cover design is described. The cover design utilizes evacuated fluorescent light tubes laid parallel in a close packed array to form an inner transparent glazing over a conventional metal absorber plate with flow behind the plate. A tempered flat glass plate was used as an outer glazing. Both clear and infrared reflective (IR) tubes were investigated. Solar transmittance tests indicate that the clear tube array has a higher transmittance than two flat sheets of low-iron glass. The IR coating produced substantial transmittance loss. Thermal conductance tests indicate that the tubes behave similar to two flat glass sheets with a vacuum in between. The IR reflective coating was only marginally effective at reducing heat conductance. Final prototype designs are presented along with collector performance estimates.

• Research Organization: Solaron Corp., Englewood, CO
• OSTI ID: 6547892
• Report Number(s): CONF-800604-P2
• Conference Information: Journal Name: Proc. Annu. Meet. - Am. Sect. Int. Sol. Energy Soc.; (United States) Journal Volume: 3.1
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

14 SOLAR ENERGY
141000* -- Solar Collectors & Concentrators
AIR HEATERS
COVERINGS
DESIGN
EQUIPMENT
EVACUATED COLLECTORS
FLAT PLATE COLLECTORS
FLUORESCENT LAMPS
HEATERS
LIGHT BULBS
LIGHT TRANSMISSION
PERFORMANCE
PHYSICAL PROPERTIES
SOLAR AIR HEATERS
SOLAR COLLECTORS
SOLAR EQUIPMENT
THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY
THERMODYNAMIC PROPERTIES
TUBES