BASELINE PERFORMANCE OF SOLAR COLLECTORS FOR NASA LANGLEY SOLAR BUILDING TEST FACILITY

摘要

The Solar Building Test Facility located at the Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, currently utilizes a 1180-m² (12700-ft²) solar collector field to help heat and cool a 4650-m² (50000-ft²) office building. The solar collector field contains seven collector designs. Be-fore operation in the field, the experimental performances (thermal efficiencies) of the seven collector designs were measured in an indoor solar simulator at the Lewis Research Center. The resulting data provided a baseline for later comparison with actual field test data. The simulator test results are presented for the collectors as received, and after several weeks of outdoor exposure with no coolant (dry operation). Six of the seven collector designs tested showed substantial reductions in thermal efficiency after dry operation.