A solar thermal collector is a solar collector specifically intended to collect heat: that is, to absorb sunlight to provide heat. Although the term may be applied to simple solar hot water panels, it is usually used to denote more complex installations. There are various types of thermal collectors, such as solar parabolic, solar trough and solar towers. These type of collectors are generally used in solar power plants where solar heat is used to generate electricity by heating water to produce steam and driving a turbine connected to the electrical generator.
Types Info:
Flat plate and box-type collectors are typically used in domestic and light industry applications. Parabolic troughs, dishes and towers are used almost exclusively in solar power generating stations or for research purposes........
Flat plate Info:
This is the most common type of solar thermal collector, and is usually used as a solar hot water panels, to generate solar hot water. An insulated box containing a black metal sheet with built in pipes is placed in sun with an over head water tank. Solar energy heats up water in the pipes and it circulates through the tank automatically by convection. It is generally used in hotels and homes.
Evacuated Tube Info:
Evacuated (or vacuum) tubes panel. These collectors have multiple evacuated glass tubes which heat up solar absorbers and, ultimately, solar working fluid (water or an antifreeze mix -- typically propylene glycol) in order to heat domestic hot water, or for hydronic space heating. The evacuated tubes minimize the re-radiation of infrared energy from the collectors, allowing them to reach considerably higher temperatures than most flat-plate collectors.
For this reason, they can perform well in colder conditions. The advantage is largely lost in warmer climates, except in those cases where very hot water is desirable, for example commercial process water. The high temperatures that can occur may require special system design to avoid or mitigate overheating conditions.
Pool or Unglazed Info:
This type of collector is much like a flat-plate collector, except that it has no glazing/transparent cover. It is used extensively for pool heating, as it works quite well when the disired output temperature is near the ambient temperature (that is, when it's warm outside). As the ambient temperature gets cooler, these collectors become extremely ineffective.
Air
These collectors heat air directly, almost always for space heating. They are also used for pre-heating make-up air in commercial and industrial HVAC systems
Box type Info:
A common solar cooker is a box type collector. It is a metal box open from top, and insulated from sides with an equally sized mirror hinged to it (like a simple box with a mirror attached to the underside of the cover).
Solar Parabolic dish Info:
This type of collector is generally used in solar power plants. A mirror shaped like a parabolic trough is used to concentrate Sunlight on an insulated tube (Dewar tube) or a heat pipe placed at the focal point, containing coolant which transfers heat from the collectors to the boilers in the power station.
Parabolic dish Info:
It is the most powerful type of collector which concentrates sunlight at a single, focal point, via one or more parabolic dishes -- arranged in a similar fashion to a reflecting telescope focuses starlight, or a dish antenna focuses radio waves. This geometry may be used in Solar furnace and Solar power plants.
Power tower Info:
It is a large tower surrounded by small rotating (tracking) mirrors called heliostats. These mirrors align themselves and focus sunlight on the receiver at the top of tower, collected heat is transferred to a power station below.
Paralumun New Age Village