The supply of drinking water is an important problem for the developing countries. Recent importance on energy conservation has resulted in new efforts to develop more efficient desalination systems for getting fresh drinking water. The Solar still concept has been widely used for achieving more output. In the past few years, much progress has been made in better understanding of working mechanism of the solar still system. A solar still is a commonly used device for water purification, and it does not require any electricity for its functioning and it is the most suitable device for the urban and rural areas. Tamilnadu lies in the high solar radiation band and the vast solar potential can be utilized to convert saline water to potable water. The distilled water production rate of a single basin solar still can vary with the design of the solar still, absorbing materials, depth of water, salt concentrations and location. In this work, an attempt has been made to develop a solar still made up of Copper sheet painted black coating inside the basin, and experimentally tested for various operating conditions. The attempts were also made to increase the productivity of water by providing storage materials and by providing low pressure inside the still. The rate of heat transfer to water in the still, distilled water evaporation rate and the daily yield were measured. There is an increase in the rate of evaporation by reducing the pressure of the still and also this produces higher rates of evaporation even at low temperatures and hence the increase in efficiency.
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