Experimental Study on the Performance of an Advanced Integral Collector Storage System with Two Types of Phase Change Material Composites
Abstract
Integral Collector Storage (ICS) systems, combine a water storage tank and a solar collector into one single unit. The technology is very potent, however one of its major issues is heat loss during collection of solar energy. This issue can be addressed by integrating ICS technology with phase changing materials, which have a potential to absorb large amounts of heat during a phase transition and minimize temperature fluctuations. However due to the low thermal conductivity of the PCMs and their tendency to leakages their application to ICS is limited. In this work, two different PCM composites with expanded graphite and advanced system structure, were studied in terms of improving ICS performance for residential applications. This paper presents comparative analysis of the performance of an ICS with and without the phase change materials.