Electronic equipment for managing of thermo-solar plant and for performance comparison between standard and nanofluid-based solar collectors

This paper describes a programmable electronic system for controlling the environmental parameters and managing the electrical functions of a civil/industrial thermo-solar plant. The device acquires data from temperature and light sensors, processes these information and commands external equipments (pumps, electric valves and power supplies) with dedicated relay outputs for the optimization of plant performances in order to maximize efficiency and energy saving. Recently several researches, in the field of solar thermal energy production, have demonstrated that nanofluid-based solar collectors present higher conversion efficiency. In this context, the designed control unit can be used to detect physical parameters in order to compare the performances of nanofluid-based solar collector with those of standard one. The electronic experimental setup is capable to monitor, at the same time, the two different types of solar collector in similar environmental conditions and to show on touch screen display the detected performances.