Experimental Study of the Efficiency of a Solar Water Heater Construction from Recycled Plastic Bottles

Abstract

A solar polymer heat exchanger is designed to heat water; its primary materials are plastic water bottles with a capacity of 1.5 liters. These materials were recycled to preserve the environment and to make use of it again. The thermal insulation properties are adopted for the characterization of polymeric materials. These properties concern the conservation of energy for the longest period of time and the absence of problems caused by rust and corrosion, which are usually encountered in traditional heat exchangers. The heat exchanger experiments start by tracking the flow of water inside the pipes by a valve. The water temperature and flow rates are determined at the inlet and outlet surfaces of the exchanger. The obtained results indicated an increase in water temperature exceeding 10℃ in an ideal spring day. The thermal efficiency of the solar collector was about 62% under the sunlight, and 44% in the laboratory where halogen lamps were used as an industrial light source.

Thermal performance analysis conical solar water heater

“…Abu-Mulaweh et al [5] et al explained designing and development of solar water heating system experimental apparatus. Besma Chekchek et al [6] constructed solar water heater from plastic bottles and evaluate its thermal performance. Sivakumar et al [7] explored the effect of zig-zag arrangement of riser tubes from the existing collector as well as the number of riser tubes.…”

Numerical Investigation of Thermal-Flow Characteristics in Heat Exchanger with Various Tube Shapes

“…They reported that the optimized oval-tube outperforms the conventional circular-tube shape by approximately 13% and 15% in heat transfer rates, 9% and 13.5% in coefficients of performance (COP), and 13% and 16.6% in heat transfer coefficients for Re = 1030 and 2060, respectively. Moreover, other investigations by numerical and experimental treatments have been carried out by Sakhri et al [42][43][44], Chamkha et al [45], Boursas et al [46], Chekchek et al [47], Hadidi et al [48], Menni et al [49][50][51][52], Ahmad et al [53], Salmi et al [54], Ameur et al [55], Mahammedi et al [56], Maouedj et al [57], etc. Their studies suggested different models of heat exchangers in order to improve the performance under various limit conditions.…”

Details on the Hydrothermal Characteristics within a Solar-Channel Heat-Exchanger Provided with Staggered T-Shaped Baffles

“…The biggest improvement in the turbulence magnitude was reached in the area within a distance of two heights of the VG from the lower wall just downstream of the VG. Other related achievements are available in the literature like Sakhri et al [18][19][20], Chamkha and Menni [21], Boursas et al [22], Chekchek et al [23], Hadidi et al [24], and Menni et al [25]. Also, Salmi et al [26] tried to enhance the convective heat transfer in CHE baffles with vortex generators.…”