Review of Evacuated Glass Tube Based Solar Collectors for Various Fluid Heating Applications

A solar collector is the central energy source of any solar thermal system. It traps the sun’s radiation to produce heat and transfer this heat to a flowing fluid (air, water, thermal oil etc.) which is then used to energize a certain heating or cooling device. The designing & sizing of a solar collector for a solar heating/cooling system is a complex having number of interrelated parameters, which include, the type of solar collector, the changing heating/cooling demand, the weather conditions, the operating temperature range, the storage tank size, the capacity of heat exchangers, the weather conditions, and a many of economic parameters. Evacuated glass tube based solar collector is reviewed in this paper for various fluid heating applications.The review in this paper comprises of applications of evacuated glass tube based solar collectors for air heating and water heating applications