Development of Solar Thermal Appliances Using Building Materials
Abstract
Solar thermal appliances (STAs) can be made as an integrated part of the building/housing using building material housings (BMH), which ultimately make these appliances more user friendly, durable and weather resistance. This paper presents fabrication and testing of three different solar thermal appliances. Appliances are developed for water heating and cooking purposes, these are: Building material housing solar water heater (BMSWH), Fixed structure solar concentrator (FSSC), Community size solar cooker (CSSC). According to the test results, the thermal performances of CSSC and BMSWH are found satisfactory even after 2 and 10 years, respectively. Two meals cooking for 8 to 10 persons can be done in CSSC on a sunny day and in BMSWH (62 liter) water can be stored near 60 ºC. Due to building material housing, systems have good durability and high weather resistance. For FSSC thermal profile and cooking test show it’s cooking ability (100-200 gm rice within 45 minutes to 1.5h ) in peak sunny hours in lesser time than box type solar cooking. Fix structure makes the system user friendly and building material structure decreases payback period of the system.