Performance Investigation of a Concentrated Solar Dish for Heating Applications

Abstract

Concentrated collectors offer a broad variety of solar energy uses, including heating, cooling, power production, and water desalination. This study was conducted to construct and test a concentrated parabolic solar dish water heater. The aperture size of the dish is 4.556m2 , and a copper absorber has a surface area of 0.2278m2 , a volume of 0.015m3 , and a concentrating ratio of 20. The water is heated up to 120°C at a solar radiation intensity of 700W/m2 and a 20°C ambient temperature. The absorber's stagnation temperature reached 246°C in roughly 1500 seconds. The thermal efficiency of the system was found to be 46%.