Numerical and experimental investigation of thermosyphon solar water heater

• We studied a thermosyphon solar water heater composed of high-performance components.
• A differential equations solution technique is investigated.
• The influences of the collector and storage losses on the system performance were examined.
• The storage losses have more influence on the long-term performance.

A glassed flat plate collector with selective black chrome coated absorber and a low wall conductance horizontal storage are combined in order to set up a high performance thermosyphon system. Each component is tested separately before testing the complete system in spring days. During the test period, effect of different inlet water temperatures on the collector performance is studied and results have shown that the collector can reach a high efficiency and high outlet water temperature even for elevated inlet water temperatures. Subsequently, long term system performance is estimated by using a developed numerical model. The proposed model, accurate and gave a good agreement with experimental results, allowed to describe the heat transfer in the storage. It has shown also that the long-term performances are strongly influenced by losses from the storage than losses from the collector.