DEVELOPMENT AND INSTALLATION OF SOLAR WATER HEATING SYSTEM FOR FEDPODAM HOSTEL

This paper presents the result of the Development, Installation and Performance evaluation of a 500 liter capacity hot water storage tank with an additional 500 liter capacity cold water storage tank that was, developed, installed and tested at Maryam Abatcha female hostel in the Federal Polytechnic Damaturu, Yobe State, Nigeria which is located at latitude 12.290N and Longitude 11.440E using available materials and thermo syphon principle at an average solar radiation of 630W/m2 to investigate the potential of using solar either directly and indirectly for heating water and to compare its cost with electricity. This design utilized a flat plate collector which was chosen because of the simplicity in construction and ease of maintenance. Two collectors of 1m2 each with single glazing were used as a heat exchanger. The surfaces of the collectors were painted with black paint of absorptivity 0.95 and emissivity of 0.09 to improve its absorption capacity. Readings were taken for a period of nine months starting from March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October and November with minimum ambient temperature of 320C. Maximum hot water temperature inside the tank as 82.30C with an average efficiency of 28.06% in June, with clear sunny atmosphere days and November with lower outlet likely due to cold dusty of the period. Test conducted reveal that the system could satisfy the hot /warm water requirements of the hostel. It was also observed that the water temperature is a function of solar radiation while the cloud cover and dust particles were observed to also affect the performance of solar water heating system thereby reducing its efficiency.