Heat Pipe Collectors for Cost Reduction of Solar Installations

摘要

Heat pipes in solar thermal collectors offer the advantage of a simpler hydraulic interconnection of the solarrncircuit while reducing the system load during stagnation compared to direct flow collectors. Within arnresearch project, we basically analyzed heat pipe solutions for collectors, developed design methods andrnoptimization potential and investigated the integration of heat pipes in flat plate collectors. Novel flat platerncollector prototypes with an inherent overheating protection have been built and tested successfully. Thernmaximum fluid temperature was limited to 140 ℃, thus compared to a direct flow collector, a temperaturerndecrease of more than 40 K is achieved. This paper presents the developed technology and explains, that therntransfer of complexity from the system to the collector by the use of heat pipes can lead to a reduction ofrnsystem costs of more than 25 %.