Solar Thermal Collector Types

The radiation from the sun heats a liquid that goes to a hot water tank.

Solar thermal collector types.

Types of solar thermal collectors. If you need water at a higher temperature to heat with radiators for example the vacuum tube collectors are more suitable. Solar thermal power plants use concentrating solar collector systems because they can produce the high temperature heat needed to generate electricity. This process is facilitated by a hot water solar collector.

Solar thermal collectors are either non concentrating or concentrating. A solar thermal collector is a device designed specifically to collect heat by absorbing sunlight and may be used to heat air or water for building heating. For most cases 60 c the flat solar collector is usually sufficient. For hot water the type of thermal collector will be defined by the final water temperature.

The collector usually moves throughout the day so that it maintains a high degree of concentration on the absorber. A solar collector operates on a very simple basis. A solar thermal collector collects heat by absorbing sunlight the term solar collector commonly refers to a device for solar hot water heating but may refer to large power generating installations such as solar parabolic troughs and solar towers or non water heating devices such as solar air heaters. The evacuated tube solar thermal system is one of the most popular solar thermal systems in operation.

As an example if the collector generates 3000 kilowatt hours of energy in a year then 2100. Thermal solar collectors turn the sun s radiation into heat and then transfer that heat to air or water.