The question is should you use evacuated or the conventional collectors for your solar heating system. Evacuated collecters are very well designed. You have a series of tubes in a panel. Each can be individually replaced should it become faulty or get damaged.

What you have is two tubes, an inner and an outer one. The inner carries the water and the outer one creates a vacuum. This vacuum makes the system very efficient. The solar water heating glass tubes heat losses are kept to a bare minimum, less that 2%. It also means that these units can work in very low temperatures even down to as low as -40 deg F.

The liquid is pumped round the system, and the heated liquid transfers its heat to the water held in a hot water heater storage tank.

All very good, so why do people still use flat plate absorber panels for a solar hot water system? There are two main reasons. One is that the evacuated collector tube systems are larger and heavier than the flat plate collectors, this means you need at least two people to install it. Where as the flat thermal systems can be carried and positioned by one man.

The other reason is that because they are more sophisticated and have a lot more parts to them, they are more prone to damage. Remember you are dealing with glass with a vacuum between the two tubes. In the past, these panels have been susceptible to damage due to the thermal expansion of the different materials. The glass is connected to a copper pipe with a waterproof seal. Because glass and copper expand at different rates, this seal often became damaged. I understand that modern production techniques have by and large overcome this problem but when you compare them to flat plate systems there is still a lot more to go wrong.

In fact, the flat plate solar hot water system is extremely simple and have very little that can go wrong. The main things you have to look out for are joints leaking and ensuring your system is designed that it can never freeze up should the temperature plummet below freezing point.

There are plenty of suppliers who are offering solar tubes kits for easy installation and it might worth experimenting with it to see if it is right for you.  However I have seen reports and some independent organizations are saying that the efficiency of the evacuated type compared to the flat type, when measured over a year is not that much, perhaps 5% better. They are also suggesting that because there is less maintenance and fewer things to go wrong with flat plate, flat plate is a better option.

Solar water heating collector tubes are more efficient but you have to decide if the advantages are great enough to warrant the higher cost over flat plate.

Solar Water Heating Collector Tubes is a post from: How to Build a Solar Panel

Solar collecters are fairly simple devices, and if you would like to make your own solar collecter battery then we have given you a few pointers in this article.

You can do it yourself; as long as you have the patience to learn, that is.  Harvesting the sun’s solar power is one of the easiest things you can do to create energy.  With a few simple tools, you can build your own solar energy collector system.  This article will focus on how to make a solar collecter battery; however, this won’t work as a practical solution for powering your home appliances or hot water heaters, maybe you can use it to recharge a battery. Click on this link if you want more info on how to build a solar panel to power your home.

There are many forms of solar collecters, but for convenience’s sake, let’s just focus on a popular concept; the solar cell (or photovoltaic cell).  It is the most widely used solar collecter these days, but somehow, these little things tend to be very expensive.  The concept is simple enough, but then, the cost isn’t.  Therefore, making your own homemade solar cell (or in this case, solar collecter battery), is a viable option.

The Things you’ll Need

To start, you are going to need some copper flashing (or copper sheeting), tin snips, an empty 2 litre plastic bottle, steel wool, some table salt (which you put in a glass of tap water), a micro ammeter (whether a digital one or an old school one, it doesn’t matter), alligator clips and an electric stove (or a propane torch, whichever suits your fancy).

The Procedure

Now, it is time to assemble your very own solar collecter.  First, you are going to need to measure the copper sheets (or copper flashing).  Then you need to cut them with the tin snips.  Make the sheets small enough to perfectly fit on top of the heating coils on your electric stove.  Heat the copper until it looks bright red hot.  Let the copper cook for around maybe 30 minutes or so and see what happens.  You’ll see that you have made 2 kinds of oxides; the black cupric oxide and the other cupric oxide underneath the black one.  You don’t need the black cupric oxide, and when you see this forming all over, you’ll need to turn off the stove so you can let the copper cool down.  After that, you will need to use the steel wool so you can clean off the cupric oxide that you don’t need.

Next, cut out another piece of copper about the same size as your first one.  Place this one into the plastic bottle or tank.  Then, place the heated piece of copper in there too.  Link your alligator clips to your micro ammeter and then connect the negative part of the alligator to the cooked copper, while the positive one goes to the clean copper.  Pour some salt water into the bottle and then you’re done.  Place your makeshift solar collecter under the sun and watch your micro ammeter rise about fifty micro-amps.  Then, Presto!  You have now learned how to make a solar collecter device (or solar cell batteries) on your own.

These are just the basics, and while some solar collectors or photovoltaic cells are much more complicated, at least you now have a basic understanding of how to make a solar collecter system of your own.

Solar Collecter is a post from: How to Build a Solar Panel