Solar Panel Cooling and Water Heating with an Economical Model Using Thermosyphon

摘要

In the present work, experimental and theoretical study has been carried out to investigate the effect of using heat thermosyphon on the performance of cooling photovoltaic thermal solar panel. Three test rigs are constructed. The first system (module I) constructed from photovoltaic panel with 0.07 mm thickness cooper plate base, four thermosyphon heat pipes and water box heat exchanger with a capacity of 16.2 litter. The second system (module II), which was made for a cheaper economic model than module I, comprises similar photovoltaic panel with 0.07 mm thickness aluminum plate base, six copper heat pipes with the same dimensions for (module I) and water cylindrical heat exchanger with a capacity of 9.537 litter. The novel panels compared with the traditional panel. The experiments are carried out in July 2017, Baghdad. A MATLAB program is used to compute the models and establishing characteristic curves. The experimental thermal results proved that the novel methods are successful in cooling the solar panel, the module I is colder than the module II and the two modules are cooler than the traditional panel in a rate of (15-35) % for module I and (10-14) % for module II. The experimental electrical results showed that the efficiency of module I is improved by (11-14) % and module II improved by (4-8) % compared with traditional one. The comparison between the experimental and theoretical results revealed a good agreement with a small deviation of about (3-6) %.