Study of a solar water heater using stationary V-trough collector

K.K. Chong
*
, K.G. Chay, K.H. Chin
Faculty of Engineering and Science, Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman, Off Jalan Genting-Kelang, Setapak, 53300 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
a r t i c l e i n f o
Article history:
Received 18 January 2011
Accepted 2 August 2011
Available online 25 August 2011
Keywords:
V-trough collector
Solar water heater
Forced circulation system
Solar collector
Solar absorber
Solar concentration
a b s t r a c t
There are various types of solar water heater system available in the commercial market to fulll
different customers demand, such as at plate collector, concentrating collector, evacuated tube collector
and integrated collector storage. A cost effective cum easy fabricated V-trough solar water heater system
using forced circulation system is proposed. Integrating the solar absorber with the easily fabricated
V-trough reector can improve the performance of solar water heater system. In this paper, optical
analysis, experimental study and cost analysis of the stationary V-trough solar water heater system are
presented in details. The experimental result has shown very promising results in both optical efciency
of V-trough reector and the overall thermal performance of the solar water heater.
2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
1. Introduction
There is an abundance of solar irradiance on earth and the
easiest way of harnessing the solar energy is to directly convert it
into useful thermal energy. Solar Water Heater (SWH) is a typical
device that converts the solar energy into thermal energy to heat
up a heat transfer uid such as water, non-freezing liquid or air for
domestic usage. The SWH system can be categorized as (1) Ther-
mosyphon system (passive), (2) Integrated Collector Storage (ICS)
system (passive), (3) Direct circulation system (active), and (4)
Indirect water heating system (active). For thermosyphon and ICS
systems, the heat transfers occur by natural convection via the
buoyancy force to circulate between heated water and cold water
inside the system. For direct circulation and indirect water heating
systems, pump or fan controlled by differential thermostat are
required to circulate the uid. The domestic or service water can be
heated either directly in the solar collector for the direct circulation
system or indirectly by a heat transfer uid that is circulated in the
solar collector via a heat exchanger to transfer its heat for the
indirect circulation system [1].
The rst ICS SWH systems were to expose the tanks of water left
out for warming under the sun on a few farms and ranches in the
Southwest of the USA in the late 1800s. They reported that the hot
water produced was sufcient for showering by the late afternoon
on clear day. The rst SWH system, manufactured commercially
under the trade name The Climax Solar Water Heater, was an ICS
SWH system and was patented in 1891 [2]. For the latest devel-
opment in the various types of SWH systems, the researchers
mainly focus their interests on improving the system performance
and reducing the cost. Just to mention a few cases, B.R. Chen et al.
found that a two-phase thermosyphon SWH not only reduces heat
loss between the collector and surroundings but also enhance the
thermal storage density [3]. Since the overall thermal efciency of
the SWH system is relied on the performance of the at plate
collector, Jaisankar et al found that a reduction in the collector area
requirement of 8e24% is possible with the use of helical twisted
tape collector compared to the plain one for the same output in the
forced circulation SWH system [4]. Kumar and Rosen proposed that
the surface of the absorber to be corrugated with small indentation
depths instead of plane in the ICS SWH system in order to have
a higher characteristic length for convective heat transfer from the
absorber to the water [5]. The next year, Kumar and Rosen proposed
ICS with extended storage unit to improve the system efciency
where rst storage tank is exposed to incoming solar radiation,
while the second storage tank is coupled to the rst tank and is
insulated on all sides [6].
Alternatively, reectors are also used to obtain higher temper-
atures on the absorbing surface by increasing the ratio of incident
energy to heat loss temperatures with the increase in the solar
concentration ratios. In concentrating system, the absorbing
surface area is reduced relative to that of the aperture leading to
a reduction in the overall heat loss from the system [2]. Hence,
Smyth proposed a techno-economic of an ICS SWH with the use of
truncated compound parabolic concentrating reector. The study
* Corresponding author. Tel.: 603 41079802; fax: 603 41079803.
E-mail addresses: kokkeong_c@yahoo.com, chongkk@utar.edu.my (K.K. Chong).
Contents lists available at ScienceDirect
Renewable Energy
j ournal homepage: www. el sevi er. com/ l ocat e/ renene
0960-1481/$ e see front matter 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.renene.2011.08.002
Renewable Energy 39 (2012) 207e215
not only shows a good solar collection performance for a compar-
atively low overall cost, but more importantly he has also
successfully introduced a new concept called Do-It-Yourself (DIY)
type of SWH in the countries of Northern latitude [7].
In this paper, we would like to introduce a cost effective and
easy fabricated SWH system with high thermal efciency so that
the culture of DIY can be nurtured especially in the developing
country. The novelty of our work is to couple a stationary V-trough
reector to the solar absorber to increase the thermal efciency of
the system. The stationary V-trough is preferred due to its much
simpler geometry compared to that of compound parabolic
concentrator. The optical performance of the stationary V-trough
still remains unknown because the current V-trough is attached to
a single-axis sun-tracking system due to its linear focusing capa-
bility. As a result, a detailed optical analysis of the novel stationary
V-trough collector is a signicant study to understand its perfor-
mance as the sun position changing throughout the day and year.
Finally, practical viability is also discussed such as a detailed
description of how a prototype V-trough SWH was constructed as
well as cost analysis and payback period of the prototype.
2. Optical analysis of stationary V-trough collector
Stationary V-trough collector was designed with the initiative to
increase the solar concentration ratio (C) of the absorber plate up to
two suns. Fig. 1 shows the schematic diagram to describe howa at
reector to be inclined at a certain angle, :ABE q 60

, can map
all the vertical rays fromthe inclined reector to the absorber plate.
To verify the sunlight fallen on the proposed V-trough reector
can be uniformly mapped onto the absorber plate, a 2-D ray-tracing
method was used in our preliminary analysis. With the given the
information such as day number (N), local clock time (LCT), local
latitude (F) and local longitude g
local
of the SWH system, both
local solar altitude (a) and solar azimuth (A) angles relative to the
V-trough collector can be calculated using the formulas as follow
[8]:
a sin
1
sin dsin F cos dcos ucos F (1)
A cos
1
_
sin dcos F cos dcos usin F
cos a
_
(2)
If sin u>0 then A 2p A: (3)
where
d sin
1
0:39795 cos0:98563 N 173 (4)
The hour angle, u, can be calculated as follows:
u 15
_
LCT 12EOT=60
_
g
local
g
standard
15
_
D
_
(5)
where EOT is Equation of Time [9], g
standard
is the longitude of
standard time zone meridian, parameter D is equal to one (hour) if
the location is in the region where daylight savings time is in effect,
or zero if not.
Since the incident vector of sunray can be expressed in terms of
both solar altitude and solar azimuth angles, ray-tracing method
can be employed to trace the sunray from the two inclined reec-
tors that forms V-trough to the absorber surface. Since the sunlight
is not a perfect parallel ray due to solar disk effect, each principal
sunray reected from the reector is assumed to spread into P sub-
rays with each sub-ray carrying an amount of energy 1/P-th of the
principal sunray. These sub-rays uniformly spread in the direction
such that it forms a light cone which subtends to the solar disks
angle of 9.3 mrad.
For N 81 (or 22 March 2010) and LCT 13.34 h (or 1.20 p.m.),
the solar altitude angle is obtained as 89.9

which means that the

sun is almost overhead and hence the incident angle, q can be
approximated to 60

. Under such an ideal condition, Fig. 2(a) was

simulated to show a 2-D cross-sectional view of ray-tracing result
where all the incident sunrays are uniformly mapped onto the
absorber plate. In contrast, for N 111 (or 21 April 2010) and
LCT 13 h (or 1.00 p.m.) where the solar altitude and solar azi-
muth angles are determined as 78.15

and 374.15

respectively,
Fig. 2(b) was simulated to illustrate howsome of the sunrays fallen
on the left side of reector are directed out from the V-trough
reector.
Fig. 1. The schematic diagram to describe howa at reector to be inclined at a certain
angle, :ABE q 60

, can fully map all the vertical rays from the inclined reector to
the absorber plate purely based on geometrical optics.
Fig. 2. 2-D cross-sectional view of ray-tracing result (a) For the case of N 81 and
LCT 13.34 h. (b) For the case of N 111 and LCT 13 h.
K.K. Chong et al. / Renewable Energy 39 (2012) 207e215 208
To further analyze the optical performance of novel stationary
V-trough collector quantitatively throughout the year, an advanced
simulation programusing ray-tracing method was developed in the
platform of Microsoft Visual C to plot solar ux distribution
prole on the absorber. In the algorithmof simulating the solar ux
distribution, each reector is optically modeled to be comprised of
a nite number of ne elements called reective points. In order to
obtain a reasonably smooth solar ux distribution pattern,
reasonably high resolutions in the optical modeling of reector
with the dimension of 14 cm 100 cm (represented by 141 1001
reective points), light cone (with total of 276 sub-rays per light
cone) and target plane of 100 cm 100 cm (represented by
251 251 pixels) have been employed so that the total number of
rays to be traced in the simulation is 1.1686 10
8
rays per V-trough
collector. The specication of V-trough collector required for the
optical analysis is listed in Table 1 in which the local latitude is
assumed to be 0

and the collector is aligned horizontally along

east-west direction. Fig. 3(a) and (b) shows the simulated solar ux
distribution proles for the cases when the sun is almost overhead
(N 80 and LCT 13 h) and when the sun is not overhead (N 111
and LCT 13 h) respectively. Please note that the end effect of V-
trough to the ux distribution pattern is mainly caused by the slant
angle of sunray when the sun is off fromthe solar noonposition and
its seriousness is dependent on howfar the sun is off fromthe solar
noon position. The end effect to the ux distribution patterns is
clearly shown in Fig. 3(a)e(b) with the distance of less than 5 cm
along Y-Axis and afterward the ux patterns become identical for
the remaining distance. Thus, Fig. 3(a)e(b) only show the zoom
view of solar ux distribution proles for the distance along Y-Axis
of up to 50 cm instead of full length 100 cm. From Fig. 3(a)e(b),
there are two important parameters that can be extracted to
describe the characteristics of solar ux distribution proles. The
rst parameter is maximum solar concentration ratio (Cmax) and
second parameter is average solar concentration ratio (Cavg).
To analyze the optical performance of V-trough collector over
the year, the solar ux distribution proles were simulated for
different day numbers, i.e. 21 (21st Jan 2010), 52 (21st Feb 2010), 80
(21st Mar 2010, vernal equinox), 111 (21st Apr 2010), 141 (21st May
2010), 172 (21st Jun 2010, summer solstice), 202 (21st Jul 2010), 233
(21st Aug 2010), 264 (21st Sep 2010, autumn equinox), 294 (21st
Oct 2010), 325 (21st Nov 2010) and 355 (21st Dec 2010, winter
solstice), at the local clock time of 13 h (near to the solar noon).
Fig. 4(a) reveals the graphs of maximum and average solar
concentration ratios to be plotted against day number at the local
clock time of 13 h for a comparison between the absorber with and
without V-trough reector. For the absorber with V-trough
reector, the simulated results have shown that the variation of
maximum solar concentration ratio ranges from 1.73 to 1.89 suns
while the variation of average solar concentration ratio ranges from
1.07 to 1.82 suns. For the absorber without V-trough reector, the
simulated results have shown that the variation of maximum solar
concentration ratio ranges from 0.91 to 0.99 suns while the varia-
tion of average solar concentration ratio ranges from 0.88 to 0.98
suns. To quantify the effect of V-trough reector in improving the
overall optical performance, a relative solar concentration ratio is
dened as the solar concentration ratio for the absorber with V-
trough reector divided by the solar concentration ratio for the
absorber without V-trough reector. Fig. 4(b) shows the maximum
and average relative solar concentration ratios as well as the total
power collected by V-trough collector versus day number at the
local clock time of 13 h. The graphs have shown that the variation of
maximum relative solar concentration ratio ranges from 1.90 to
1.92 whereas the variation of average relative solar concentration
ratio ranges from1.19 to 1.85. The total power collected by V-trough
collector ranges from 0.154 kW to 0.261 kW.
To analyze the daily performance of V-trough collector, the solar
ux distribution proles were simulated for different local clock
times, i.e. 9 h (9.00 am), 10 h (10.00 am), 11 h (11.00 am), 12 h (12.00
Table 1
The specication of V-trough solar water heater for the optical analysis.
V-trough reector
Total number of mirrors to
form V-trough reector
2
Dimension of each mirror 14 cm (width) 100 cm (length)
Total reective area of reector 0.56 m
2
Reectivity of mirror 0.9 (or 90%)
Inclined angle of mirror,
:E (refer to Fig. 1)
60

Absorber
Dimension of absorber 14 cm (width) 100 cm (length)
V-trough solar water heater system
Orientation of V-trough collector Along east-west direction
and horizontal
Latitude 0

Longitude 101

44
0
East
Standard time zone meridian 120

East
Fig. 3. The zoom view of solar ux distribution proles on the absorber plate for the
distance along Y-Axis of up to 50 cm instead of full length 100 cm. (a) For the case of
N 80 and LCT 13 h. (b) For the case of N 111 and LCT 13 h.
K.K. Chong et al. / Renewable Energy 39 (2012) 207e215 209
pm), 13 h (1.00 pm), 14 h (2.00 pm), 15 h (3.00 pm), 16 h (4.00 pm),
17 h (5.00 pm) and 18 h (6.00 pm), at the day number of 80. Fig. 5(a)
reveals the maximumand average solar concentration ratios versus
local clock time at the day number of 80 to be plotted for
a comparison between the absorber with and without V-trough
reector. For the absorber with V-trough reector, the simulated
results have shown that the variation of maximum solar concen-
tration ratio ranges from 0.66 to 1.89 suns while the variation of
average solar concentration ratio ranges from 0.52 to 1.79 suns. For
the absorber without V-trough reector, the simulated results have
shown that the variation of maximum solar concentration ratio
ranges from 0.34 to 0.99 suns while the variation of average solar
concentration ratio ranges from 0.34 to 0.98 suns. Fig. 5(b) shows
the maximum and average relative solar concentration ratios as
well as the total power collected by V-trough collector versus local
clock time at the day number of 80. The graphs have shown that the
variation of maximum relative solar concentration ratio ranges
from 1.91 to 2.00 while the variation of average relative solar
concentration ratio ranges from 1.55 to 1.83. The total power
collected by V-trough collector can be ranged from 0.075 kW to
0.257 kW.
3. Design and construction of prototype solar water heater
Similar to other type of forced circulation system, the novel
V-trough SWH system mainly consists of stationary V-trough
collector, pump circulation system and storage tank. The proposed
V-trough SWH with high thermal efciency can be easily
constructed and installed in the rural area without the requirement
of sophisticated equipment. It can help to reduce the dependency
on the fossil fuel especially in the developing country.
The prototype of V-trough SWH system was constructed in the
Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman campus that is located at Kuala
Lumpur with latitude 3.2

N and longitude of 101

44
0
E. In this
system, the stationary V-trough collector was designed to
concentrate the sunlight onto the absorber in order to effectively
convert solar energy into thermal energy. The following describe
the details of each component of the prototype V-trough SWH
system and how these components were constructed.
3.1. V-trough collector
The solar collector is made fromtwo major parts: a at absorber
plate and V-trough reector. The V-trough reector was con-
structed using two rectangular facet mirrors with a dimension of
13.5 cm (width) 100 cm (length) 0.5 cm (thickness) each and
inclined at the angle of 120

relative to the absorber plate. To

optimize the optical performance, the V-trough reector was
aligned horizontally along east-west direction. Ideally the V-trough
reector should be south facing and inclined at the angle of equal to
the local latitude. However, in order to simplify the mechanical
structure of the prototype with a very minimum effect to the
overall performance, we decided to place the V-trough reector in
horizontal since the local latitude is only 3.2

N.
The absorber plate was fabricated by joining a brass sheet with
a dimension of 13.5 cm (width) 100 cm (length) 0.9 mm
Fig. 4. (a) The graphs of maximum and average solar concentration ratios versus day
number at the local clock time of 13 h. (b) The graphs of the maximum and average
relative solar concentration ratios as well as the total power collected by V-trough
collector versus day number at the local clock time of 13 h.
Fig. 5. (a) The graphs of maximum and average solar concentration ratios versus local
clock time at the day number of 80. (b) The graphs of the maximum and average
relative solar concentration ratios as well as the total power collected by V-trough
collector versus local clock time at the day number of 80.
K.K. Chong et al. / Renewable Energy 39 (2012) 207e215 210
(thickness) to three equally distant copper pipes with outer diam-
eter of 1.0 cm each. Although the width of the constructed absorber
is 0.5 cmdifferent fromthat of width applied in the optical analysis,
the small discrepancy in the collector width does not incur any
inuence to the nal result as it can be explained in the following
two reasons. First, the ratio of V-trough aperture size per absorber
area still remains the same in both cases. Second, the average solar
concentration throughout the whole area of absorber is taken in
account. It is inevitable to consider the absorber dimension of
14 cm 100 cm in the optical analysis owing to the convenience to
represent it by the equivalent 141 1001 reective points
compared to the dimension of 13.5 cm 100 cm.
The copper pipes were brazed to the top surface of the brass
sheet for maximizing the exposure area of the copper pipes to the
solar radiation. The brass sheet was selected as a supporting base
because of its good thermal conductivity and high tensile strength.
Both the brass sheet and copper pipe have thermal conductivities of
110.8 W/(mK) and 401 W/(mK) respectively. The top surface of the
absorber plate was painted in black color as to maximize the
absorptivity to solar irradiance. Five absorber plates were built and
then screwed onto three hollow aluminum beams with the length
of 150 cm to provide physical support to the V-trough collector.
Last but not the least, oat glass was used as main glazing
material to insulate the space above the absorber plate for pro-
hibiting cool air from owing into this space that could cause the
convective loss. Five rectangular oat glasses with the dimension of
28 cm (width) 100 cm (length) 0.5 cm (thickness) each were
xed on top of the each V-trough reector with silicone adhesive.
Trapezium-shaped oat glasses were used to cover both ends of the
V-trough reector and the remaining gaps were lled with
extruded polystyrene as shown in Fig. 6. Extruded Polystyrene was
also employed to insulate the external surface of V-trough reector
from heat loss through both conductive and convective processes.
Extruded polystyrene is chosen as main insulating material of the
prototype SWH due to its lowcost and weather proof characteristic
that is in line with our design concept.
3.2. Storage tank
Storage tank of prototype SWH was simply a standard plastic
container with a dimension of 42 28.5 26 cm
3
capable of
storing at least 20 L of hot water for domestic usage. Two holes
were drilled where one hole was at the bottom of the tank for the
connection to the absorber inlet and the other hole was at the top
part of the water tanks side wall for the connection to the absorber
outlet. Fiberglass and aluminum foil were utilized to enhance the
heat insulation of the water tank from convective and radiation
losses respectively due to their easy availability, cost effectiveness
and light weight. Aluminum foil was xed at the external layer to
embrace the berglass at the internal layer and they were bonded
to water tank with the use of silicone adhesive. Fig. 7 shows the
picture of the storage tank that was constructed for the experi-
mental test.
3.3. Pump circulation system
Pump circulation system is comprised of four major compo-
nents: controller circuit, water pump, piping and thermal sensors
(or thermocouples). A controller circuit with 8-bit Programmable
Interface Controller (PIC) was constructed for controlling the switch
of the water pump. Fig. 8 shows the picture of the pump controller
circuit inwhich all the electronic components, i.e. PIC, relay, op amp
etc, are soldered on a Printed Circuit Board (PCB) and a 12 V relay is
used to control the water pump. Two wires (at the top left corner)
Fig. 6. Picture to show the prototype of V-trough solar water heater with glazing and
insulation (the storage tank, the reector and absorber are insulated by the extruded
polystyrene).
Fig. 7. Picture to show how the storage tank was constructed with the use of plastic
container and insulating materials. Underneath the storage tank, there is a water pump
(green color) connected to the absorber for circulating the hot water. (For interpre-
tation of the references to colour in this gure legend, the reader is referred to the web
version of this article.)
Fig. 8. Picture to show the controller circuit that is soldered on a Printed Circuit Board
(PCB) where a 12 V relay is used to control the water pump.
K.K. Chong et al. / Renewable Energy 39 (2012) 207e215 211
are connected to the thermal sensors to measure the water
temperatures in both the absorber plate and storage tank. The PIC is
programmed as a comparator to obtain the differential water
temperature between absorber plate and storage tank. If the water
temperature in the absorber plate is higher than that of the storage
tank, the water pump will be switched on by the relay for circu-
lating the water between the absorber and storage tank. Contrary, if
the water temperature in the absorber plate is lower than that of
storage tank, then the controller will switch off the water pump for
avoiding the heat loss from the storage tank through the water
circulation. During the cloudy day and night time, heat loss is
relatively higher in the absorber plate compared to the storage
tank. One of the advantages of prototype SWHsystemusing forced-
convective method is to reduce the heat loss during the period of
intermittent sunshine.
Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) screen is attached on the controller
circuit for the purpose of displaying the water temperature at both
the absorber plate and the storage tank. TEMP A and TEMP B dis-
played on the LCD screen indicated the temperature of water at
both the absorber and the storage tank respectively. Off-the-shelf
water pump (green color) as shown in Fig. 7 is utilized to circu-
late the water between the absorber plate and the storage tank
when it is triggered by the controller circuit.
4. Result and discussion
The performance test of the prototype was carried out in two
different cases: without glazing and thermal insulation (see Fig. 9)
and with glazing and thermal insulation (see Fig. 6) installed to the
prototype SWH including reector, absorber and storage tank. In
the experiments, we measured ambient temperature, water
temperature in the storage tank and global solar irradiance in the
function of local clock time. Fig. 10(a) and 10(b) shows the
measurement results in the case of prototype without glazing and
thermal insulation on 23rd Feb 2010 and 25th Feb 2010 respec-
tively. On the other hand, Fig. 11(a) and 11(b) shows the measure-
ment results in the case of prototype with glazing and thermal
insulation on 16th Mar 2010 and 19th Mar 2010 respectively. All the
Fig. 9. Picture to show the prototype of V-trough solar water heater without glazing
and insulation (the storage tank, the reector and absorber are not insulated by the
extruded polystyrene).
Fig. 10. Measurement results of ambient temperature, water temperature in the
storage tank and global solar irradiance versus local clock time in the case of V-trough
solar water heater without glazing and insulation (a) Measurement result on 23rd Feb
2010 (b) Measurement result on 25th Feb 2010.
Fig. 11. Measurement results of ambient temperature, water temperature in the
storage tank and global solar irradiance versus local clock time in the case of V-trough
solar water heater with glazing and insulation. (a) Measurement result on 16th Mar
2010 (b) Measurement result on 19th Mar 2010.
K.K. Chong et al. / Renewable Energy 39 (2012) 207e215 212
measurement results have shown a common characteristic where
the water temperature in the storage tank increases proportionally
with the global solar irradiance. Except cloudy day, the graphs of
global solar irradiance slowly increase from the lowest value at
10.00 a.m. to the maximum value at the solar noon and then they
slowly decrease after the solar noon. This phenomenon is due to the
reduction of solar radiation on the solar collector by the cosine loss
of incident sunray. The highest achievable water temperatures
(tank) on 23rd Feb 2010 and 25th Feb 2010 in the case of without
glazing and thermal insulation are 66.9

C (at 13.5 h) and 61.4

C (at
13 h) respectively that happened near to the solar noon. With
proper thermal insulation and glazing applied to the prototype
SWH, the highest achievable water temperature on 16th Mar 2010
and 19th Mar 2010 were successfully improved to 81.5

C (at 13.5 h)
and 85.9

C (at 14 h) respectively.
To study the performance of the prototype V-trough SWH with
the specication as listed in Table 2, the following formulas were
applied in the analysis [3,7,10e12]:
Total amount of solar energy radiated on the aperture area over
a test interval Dt is given by
Q
incident
I
ave
A
ap
Dt (6)
The average global solar irradiance (W/m
2
) incident on the
collector aperture over an interval of Dt is
I
ave

1
Dt
_

_
_
t
f
t
i
Itdt
_

_ (7)
where t
i
is time starting point (s), t
f
is time nal point (s), Dt is
interval time (s) and I(t) is instantaneous incident solar irradiance
on the collector aperture (W/m
2
) [12].
The collected thermal energy
Q
col
mc
water
_
T
f ;heating
T
i;heating
_
(8)
The average water temperature in the storage tank over the
heating period for the interval time Dt:
T
ave;heating

_
T
i;heating
T
f ;heating
_
2
(9)
where T
i,heating
and T
f,heating
are initial and nal water temperature
in the storage tank for the heating period within the interval time
Dt respectively (K).
The average ambient temperature period for the interval time
Dt:
T
ave;amb

_
T
i;amb
T
f ;amb
_
2
(10)
where T
i,amb
and T
f,amb
are initial and nal ambient temperature for
the interval time Dt respectively (K).
Considering the rst order effect, the heat balance of the system
with no draw-off can be approximated by
mc
water
_
T
f ;heating
T
i;heating
I
ave
_
h
optical
_
A
ap
Dt
UA
system
_
T
ave;heating
T
ave;amb
__ (11)
therefore, the collection efciency is
h
col

mc
water
_
T
f ;heating
T
i;heating
_
I
ave
A
ap
Dt
(12)
h
col
h
optical

UA
system
_
T
ave;heating
T
ave;amb
_
I
ave
A
ap
Dt
(13)
where A
ap
is aperture area (m
2
), A
system
is surface area of the system
(m
2
), c
water
is specic heat capacity of water (4190 J/kg K), mis mass
of the water (kg), h
optical
is optical efciency, U is heat loss coef-
cient (W/K).
Given that the specication of prototype SWHas listed inTable 2
and the collected data as shown in Fig. 11(a)e(b), the collection
efciency, h
col
, is calculated for a time interval Dt of half an hour
using Eq (12). The collection efciency is then plotted against DT/
I
ave
as shown in Fig. 12 provided that
DT T
ave;heating
T
ave;amb
(14)
The optical efciency where the characterization line intersects
theh
col
axis canbeseeninFig. 12as 0.7054or 70.54%. Accordingtothe
simulated result in Fig. 4(a), 90% reectivity of V-trough reector and
cosine effect were considered in the simulation to obtain maximum
solar concentrationof 1.8suns on21March. Intheexperimental study
Table 2
The specication of prototype V-trough solar water heater constructed at Universiti
Tunku Abdul Rahman campus.
Description Feature/Value
Type of reector back-coated oat glass mirror
Dimension of each mirror 13.5 cm (width) 100 cm (length)
0.5 cm (thickness)
Total number of mirrors
per V-trough reector
2
Inclined angle of each mirror,
:ABE
(refer to Fig. 1)
60

Total reective area of each

V-trough collector
0.56 m
2
Dimension of each glazing 28 cm (width) 100 cm (length)
0.5 cm (thickness)
Dimension of each absorber plate 13.5 cm (width) 100 cm (length)
0.9 mm (thickness)
Total sets of V-trough collector 5
Total aperture size of prototype, A
ap
1.35 m
2
Total mass of water in the
storage tank, m
20 kg (20 L)
Orientation of V-trough collector Along east-west direction
and horizontal
Latitude 3.2

N
Longitude 101

44
0
E
Standard time zone meridian 120

E
Fig. 12. Collection efciency of prototype V-trough solar water heater with glazing and
insulation.
K.K. Chong et al. / Renewable Energy 39 (2012) 207e215 213
of V-trough reector, the measured the solar concentration of 1.41
suns (2 suns 70.54% because the total aperture area that includes
the reector is double the absorber area) has shown a reasonably
good thermal performance compared to the simulated result. The
discrepancy between the simulated and experimental result could be
caused by the absorption loss and reection loss from the glazing,
imperfect absorptivity of the absorber plate, intermittent sunshine
and heat loss from the storage tank.
For economic viability, the payback period of the SWH system
can be determined with the following formulas [13]:
n
pay

ln
_
1 S
total
i
0
=P
ann

ln
_
1 i
0
_ (15)
in which i
0

_
1 i
1 j
_
1 (16)
where i is interest rate or discounted rate, j is fuel ination rate,
S
total
is the total cost of solar water heater system, P
ann
is fuel cost
saving per year (US$/year).
For an instance, let us consider a discounted form of calculation
with the interest rate of 6% if a loan is made to build the V-trough
SWH with the capacity of 20 L or 20 kg hot water and the fuel
ination rate is 4%. The daily energy consumption to heat up 20 L of
water from25

C to 85

C is 1.397 kWh while the energy consumed
by the water pump is 0.138 kWh by assuming the pump operated at
46 W with total daily operating time of 3 h. The daily net energy
gained fromthe V-trough SWHis 1.259 kWh, which is equivalent to
the daily consumption of US$ 0.1218 (or RM 0.3776 @ US$ 1 RM
3.10, where RM is Malaysian Currency) in the electric bill provided
that the electricity cost is US$ 0.10 per kWh (or RM 0.30 per kWh).
Hence the yearly saving of electricity will be US$ 44.46 (or RM
137.82) if SWH system is used to replace the electrical heater.
Table 3 shows the breakdown cost of all the components for
constructing the V-trough SWHand the total expenses of the whole
system is US$ 480.45 (or RM 1489.40). With the use of annual
saving fromthe electrical bill to pay the installment of the loan, the
total payback period can be calculated from Eq. (15) as 12.2 years,
which is quite reasonable because the SWH system normally can
last for about 20 years. On the other hand, the total payback period
is calculated as 8.9 years for undiscounted form.
5. Conclusion
The novel stationary V-trough solar water heater with the
maximum solar concentration ratio of 1.8 suns has been proposed
to improve the thermal efciency of the whole system. The
advantages of the new proposal are that easy to be fabricated, cost
effective and high thermal efciency. The collected data has shown
that the prototype has achieved the optical efciency of 70.54% or
1.41 suns and the temperature of 85.9

C. The prototype can be
easily constructed through DIY using off-the-shelf materials with
total cost of RM 1489.40 and total payback period of 12.2 year for
discounted form or 8.9 years for undiscounted form.
Acknowledgments
The authors would like to express their gratitude to the Ministry
of Science, Technology & Innovation through e-Science Fund for the
nancial support.
Nomenclature
Q
incident
total amount of solar energy incident on the aperture area
over the test period (Joule)
I
ave
average insolation incident on the collector aperture over
an interval of Dt (W/m
2
)
Q
col
the collected thermal energy (Joule)
h
col
the collection efciency
A
ap
aperture area (m
2
)
A
system
surface area of the system (m
2
)
c
water
specic heat capacity of water (4190 J/kg K)
Dt the time of test interval (seconds)
I (t) the instantaneous incident insolation on the collector
aperture (W/m
2
)
m mass of the water (kg),
T
ave,amb
average ambient temperature for the interval time Dt (K),
T
ave,heating
average water temperature in the storage tank over the
heating period within the interval time Dt (K)
h
optical
optical efciency (%)
U heat loss coefcient (W/K).
n
pay
payback period of the solar water heater system (Years)
i interest rate or discounted rate (%)
j fuel ination rate (%)
S
total
total cost of solar water heater system (US$)
P
ann
fuel cost saving per year (US$/year)
a solar altitude angle (degrees)
A solar azimuth angle (degrees)
LCT local clock time in 24-h rather than AM/PMformat, which
is dened by politically time zones. (Hours)
N day number and calendar dates are expressed as the
N 1, starting with 1st January 2010. Thus 22nd March
2010 would be N 31 28 22 81 and 31st December
2010 means N 365.
t
s
solar time which is a 24-h clock with 12:00 as the exact
time when the sun is at the highest point in the sky
(Hours)
F local latitude angle (degrees)
Table 3
The breakdown cost of all the components for constructing prototype V-trough solar
water heater system.
Component Description Retail
price
(RM)
Retail
price
(US$)
Solar Collector 3 pieces of 0.9 mm
brass sheet (1
0
3
0
)
294.00 94.84
15 units of copper pipes 150.00 48.38
Workmanship for welding
brass sheet to copper pipes
45.00 14.52
10 pieces of aluminum
angle
3
/
4
0 0

3
/
4
0 0
10.00 3.23
2 bottles of black spray paint 12.00 3.87
Mirror 100.00 32.26
Glazing glass 160.00 51.61
Silicone glue 7.00 2.26
Structure frame 83.40 26.90
Poly form insulating material 10.00 3.23
Fiber glass 11.20 3.61
Storage Tank Plastic storage container 25.90 8.35
Aluminum foil 8.50 2.74
PVC socket, elbow, pipe,
tape, hose clip, glue
42.90 13.84
Water pipe 34.90 11.26
Pump circulating
system
Electronic control
system includes PIC,
pin adaptors, Op amp,
cable, transformer etc
180.60 58.26
Two units of temperature
sensors
14.00 4.52
Water pump 300.00 96.77
Total Retail Cost RM 1489.40 US$ 480.45
Note: Assume the currency conversion, US$ 1.00 RM 3.10.
K.K. Chong et al. / Renewable Energy 39 (2012) 207e215 214
u hour angle (degrees)
EOT equation of time (minutes)
LC longitude correction (Hours)
D daylight saving time (Hour)
q incident angle of light relative to the normal of V-trough
reector as shown in Fig. 1
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