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Solar Energy 85 (2011) 13811389

www.elsevier.com/locate/solener

Comparative studies on thermal performance of

water-in-glass evacuated tube solar water heaters with dierent
collector tilt-angles
Runsheng Tang , Yuqin Yang, Wenfeng Gao
Education Ministry Key Laboratory of Advanced Technology and Preparation for Renewable Energy Materials, Yunnan Normal University,
Kunming 650092, PR China
Received 6 July 2010; received in revised form 23 March 2011; accepted 25 March 2011
Available online 19 April 2011
Communicated by: Associate Editor Dr. Brain Norton

Abstract
To performance comparative studies, two sets of water-in-glass evacuated tube solar water heater (SWH, in short) were constructed
and tested. Both SWHs were identical in all aspects but had dierent collector tilt-angle from the horizon with the one inclined at 22
(SWH-22) and the other at 46 (SWH-46). Experimental results revealed that the collector tilt-angle of SWHs had no signicant inuence
on the heat removal from solar tubes to the water storage tank, both systems had almost the same daily solar thermal conversion eciency but dierent daily solar and heat gains, and climatic conditions had a negligible eect on the daily thermal eciency of systems due
to less heat loss of the collector to the ambient air. These ndings indicated that, to maximize the annual heat gain of such solar water
heaters, the collector should be inclined at a tilt-angle for maximizing its annual collection of solar radiation. Experiments also showed
that, for the SWH-22, the cold water from the storage tank circulated down to the sealed end of tubes along the lower wall of tubes and
then returned to the storage tank along the upper wall of solar tubes with a clear water circulation loop; whereas for the SWH-46, the
situation in the morning was the same as the SWH-22, but in the afternoon, the cold water from the storage tank on the way to the sealed
end was partially or fully mixed with the hot water returning to the storage tank without a clear water circulation loop, furthermore, such
mixing became more intense with the increase in the inlet water temperature of solar tubes. This indicated that increasing the collector
tilt-angle of SWHs had no positive eect on the thermosiphon circulation of the water inside tubes. No noticeable inactive region near the
sealed end of solar tubes for both systems was observed in experiments.
2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Water-in-glass solar water heater; Collector tilt-angle; Comparative experimental studies; Thermal performance; Flow structure in tubes

1. Introduction
In China, all-glass evacuated tube solar collectors were
widely used for the water and building heating due to the
good thermal performance, easy installation and transportation. A preliminary investigation showed that all-glass
evacuated tube solar collectors took an 88% share of the
market in 2003 (Tang et al., 2006) and 95% in 2009. The
Corresponding author. Tel.: +86 871 5516229; fax: +86 871 5516217.

E-mail address: kingtang@public.km.yn.cn (R. Tang).

0038-092X/$ - see front matter 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.solener.2011.03.019

annual production of evacuated solar tubes in China,

expanding at an annual average growth of 30% in recent
years (Xiao et al., 2004), was estimated to be more than
20 million tubes in 2001(Morrison et al., 2004) and 350 million tubes in 2009. All-glass evacuated solar tube consists
of two concentric tubes sealed at one end with an annular
vacuum space and a selective surface absorber on the outer
surface (vacuum side) of the inner tube. The most widely
used solar tubes are those with the inner tube of 47 mm
in diameter and the cover tube of 58 mm in diameter (47/
58 tube), and those with the inner tube of 37 mm in

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R. Tang et al. / Solar Energy 85 (2011) 13811389

Nomenclature
B
D1
D2
Ft-s
Hday
I
L
M
N
n
T
Ti
Tf
t
Dt

distance between centers of two adjacent tubes

(m)
diameter of inner tube of solar tubes (m)
diameter of cover tube of solar tubes (m)
shape factor for diuse radiation from a tube to
the sky dome (dimensionless)
daily solar gain (J/m2)
instantaneous solar intensity (W/m2)
length of solar tubes exposed to the ambient air
(m)
water mass in the storage tank (kg)
number of solar tubes in a solar water heater
day number counted from 1st day of January;
unit vector
temperature (C)
reading of ith temperature sensor; initial water
temperature in the tank (C)
nal water temperature in the tank (C)
solar time (s)
time interval of measurements (s)

diameter and the cover tube of 47 mm in diameter (37/47

tube). The most fashionable solar tubes in the recent solar
market are 47/58 tube with the length of 1.8 m. In practical
applications, solar tubes can be horizontally arranged or
tilt-arranged to form a collector. For domestic solar water
heaters (i.e. water-in-glass evacuated tube solar water heaters), solar tubes are usually tilt-arranged with the opening
ends being directly inserted into the coupling water storage
tank (Fig. 1); whereas for large scale solar heating systems,
solar tubes are horizontally arranged with the opening ends
being directly inserted into the coupling manifold channel
(Fig. 2). To enhance the energy collection, a diuse at
reector (DFR) is equipped behind solar tubes to reect
the radiation passing through gaps of the collector to solar
tubes. However, in recent years, with the decrease in the
production cost of solar tubes, such reector is usually
omitted to reduce the wind-induced force on the collector.
In China, more than 90% of solar tubes were used to produce domestic solar water heaters, and the annual production of such solar water heaters was about 15 million sets in
2009.
Unlike at plate collectors, the annual collectible radiation on a single solar tube of the collector is related to
many factors such as the size of solar tubes, distance
between two adjacent tubes, use of the DFR, collector
types, distance between solar tubes and the DFR, site latitude and climatic conditions. Beekley and Mather (1975)
rst developed a mathematical procedure to estimate collectible radiation on a single tube of evacuated solar tube
collectors. After then, Shah and Furbo (2004) developed
a detailed theoretical model to predict the optical and thermal performance of vertical evacuated tubular-collectors.

b
d
u
k
X

x
h

collector tilt-angle from the horizon (deg)

declination of the sun (deg)
azimuth angle of collectors (deg)
site latitude (deg)
angle formed by the projection of solar rays on
the cross-section of tubes and the normal of collector surface (deg)
solar hour angle (rad)
incident angle (rad)

Subscripts:
a
ambient air
b
beam radiation
d
sky diuse radiation
h
horizontal radiation
in
inlet water of solar tubes
out
outlet water of solar tubes
s
sky dome; sun
t
solar tube
w
water storage tank

Fig. 1. Solar water heaters with a collector tilt-angle about 42, installed
in a building of Kunming where the site latitude is about 25.

Heat transfer and ow structures inside solar tubes for different operating conditions were also investigated using
computational uid dynamics by Shah and Furbo (2007)
based on a collector design with horizontal tubes connected
to a vertical manifold channel, and they concluded that
the collector with the shortest tube length achieved the
highest eciency. A comparative study by Budihardjo
and Morrison (2009) showed that the performance of a
typical 30 tube evacuated tube array was lower than a typical 2 panel at plate array for domestic water heating in
Sydney. Theoretical and experimental studies performed
by Behnia and Morison (Behnia and Morrison, 1991;
Morrison et al., 2004) showed that there was an inactive
region near the sealed end of a long tube for even heat

R. Tang et al. / Solar Energy 85 (2011) 13811389

Fig. 2. Horizontally arranged solar collectors.

source which might inuence the performance of such solar

collectors, but not for uneven heat source. A visualizing
experiment by Huo et al. (1991) showed that, for south
north oriented solar tubes inclined at a tilt-angle from the
horizon, a fraction of cold water from the water tank on
the way circulating down to the sealed end would directly
return back to the tank and never reached the sealed end,
furthermore, such fraction increased with the increase in
the tilt-angle. This visualizing experiment was conducted
in the laboratory where transparent electric heating lm
was deposited on the external surface of a tube as the heat
source (the rated power on the front half surface of the
tube was two times as that on the back half surface). However, the actual situation was not like this and only part of
tubes surface was exposed to the sunlight for a collector
without the DFR.
For a SWH, the annual solar gain is related to the site
latitude, tilt and azimuth angles of collectors as well local
climatic conditions, thus to maximize the annual energy
collection, collectors should be south-facing mounted and
inclined at a yearly optimal tilt-angle from the horizon.
Previous study of the authors (Tang et al., 2009) showed
that the yearly optimal tilt-angle of solar tube collectors
should be lower than the site latitude for maximizing the
annual energy collection. However, in the practical applications, most of such SWH in China were installed at a collector tilt-angle above 40 without considering the site
latitude and local climatic conditions. Many solar engineers persisted that the SWH with a larger collector tiltangle could improve the thermosiphon circulation of the
water in a SWH and facilitate the heat removal from tubes
to the water storage tank, thus improve their thermal performance. As a typical example shown in Fig. 1, all SWHs
were south-facing oriented with a collector tilt-angle about
42, much higher than the geographical latitude of
Kunming, 25, and the optimal value of 21 (Tang et al.,
2009). Studies by Behnia and Gaa (Behnia and Morrison,
1991; Gaa et al., 1996) revealed that the thermosyphon
ow rate in tubes of SWHs was small and the collector
tilt-angle of SWHs had an insignicant eect on the water

1383

ow in tubes. Indeed, with the decreasing in the collector

tilt-angle of SWHs, the portion of the cold water volume
below the level of the evacuated tube opening increases
and the solar portion in the water tank is reduced, but
this is not critical to the performance of evacuated tube
collectors since the heat loss due to high temperature collector operation is small, as indicated by Budihardjo and
Morrison (2009) who found that the annual solar fraction
of the water-in-glass system with 45collector inclination
was only 1.5% higher than the solar fraction with a standard 22collector inclination. A simulation study performed by Chen (2009) indicated that tilt and azimuth
angles of collectors had considerable eects on the daily
heat gain of a SWH but insignicant on the daily thermal
conversion eciency.
Motivated by these studies and needs in the practical
design of such SWH, an attempt was made in this work
to experimentally investigate eects of the collector tiltangle of SWHs on the thermal performance of solar systems and water ow characteristics inside solar tubes by
comparative experiments.
2. Mathematical method to estimate daily collectible
radiation by a single tube
To measure the daily thermal conversion eciency of
SWHs, daily collectible radiation on the collector of a
SWH must be known, but this can not be directly measured
by a pyrometer due to the tubular absorber and shading
between solar tubes, thus a mathematical procedure should
be suggested to estimate the daily collectible radiation on
the collector of such SWHs.
Assuming that SWHs are mounted with the collector
tilt-angle, b, from the horizon and azimuth angle, u, measuring from due south to the west. For a collector without
the DFR, the collectible radiation by a single solar tube of
the collector at any moment includes two components:
beam radiation directly intercepted by the tube, sky diuse
radiation directly intercepted by the tube. The beam radiation directly intercepted by unit length of a single tube can
be expressed by:
I t;b D1 I b cos ht f X

where D1 is the diameter of inner tube of solar tubes, Ib is

the instantaneous beam radiation intensity on a surface
normal to radiation, and ht is the angle between solar rays
and the projection of solar rays on the cross-section of solar tubes and determined by (Tang et al., 2009):
q
cos ht n0x n0x n0y n0y
2
f(X) in Eq. (1) is the angular acceptance function, and related to X , the angle between the projection of solar rays
on the cross-section of tubes and the normal of the collector. The angle, X , is determined by (Tang et al., 2009):

1384

R. Tang et al. / Solar Energy 85 (2011) 13811389

 0
 ny 
tan X  0 
nx

cos hz cos d cos k cos x sin d sin k

where
n0x nx cos b  ny sin / nz cos / sin b

4a

n0y

ny cos /  nz sin /

4b

n0z

nz sin b ny sin / nz cos / cos b

4c

and
nx cos d cos k cos x sin d sin k

5a

ny  cos d sin x

5b

nz  cos d sin k cos x sin d cos k

5c

where k is the site latitude, x is the solar hour angle, d is the

declination of the sun and determined by (Rabl, 1985):
sin d  sin 23:45 cos360n 10=365:25

where n is the day number counted from the rst day of

January. Knowing the angle X , the angular acceptance
function, f(X), can be determined by the following
expression:
8
1
X 6 X0
>
<


D
Xo < X 6 X1
f X DB1 cos X 0:5 1  D21
7
>
:
0
X > X1
In the above expression, f(X) is set at 0 when n0x 6 0, implying no beam radiation incidence on the collector surface at
the moment. The critical angles X0 and X1 can be calculated by:
D1 D2
2B
D2  D1
cos X1
2B

cos X0

Fts in Eq. (10) is called as the shape factor for the sky diffuse radiation from a tube to the sky and can be calculated
by (Tang et al., 2009):




D2
B
X1  X0 sin X1  sin X0 =p
F ts X0 0:5 1 
D1
D1
14
Knowing beam radiation Ib and horizontal diuse radiation Id, radiation collected by unit length of a single tube
of a collector at the moment can be calculated by summing
above two components as follow:
I t D1 I b cos ht f X pI db F ts

where N is the number of solar tubes in a SWH, L is the

length of a solar tube exposed to the ambient air, Dt is
the time interval of measurements. Thus, the daily thermal
conversion eciency of the SWH can be expressed by:
gday MC p T f  T i =H day

17

where M is the water mass in the storage tank, Ti and Tf

are the initial and nal water temperature in the storage
tank, respectively, and Cp = 4180 W/kg C is the specic
heat of water.
3. Experimental descriptions
To perform comparison of the thermal performance of
SWHs with dierent collector tilt-angles, two sets of the
SWH, each consisting of 18 tubes (47/58 tube, 1.8 m in
the length) and one horizontal cylindrical water tank

10

11

in which, the Id is the sky diuse radiation on the horizon

and determined by:
I d I h  I b cos hz

15

Daily collectible radiation of the SWH can be calculated by

summing collectible radiation at dierent moment during
the period of measurements in a day, namely:
X
I t Dt
16
H day NL

where Idb is the sky diuse radiation on the collector surface, for the isotropic sky diuse radiation, Idb is determined by Idb = 0.5(1 + cos b)Id. However, the actual
distribution of sky diuse radiation is not isotropic, as observed by Hamilton (Koronakis, 1986) who found that
63% of sky diuse radiation came from the southern part
of sky dome in the northern hemisphere, thus following
correlation was employed:
I db 2 cos bI d =3

13

where D2 is the diameter of cover tube of solar tubes, B is

the distance between centers of two adjacent tubes. For the
isotropic sky diuse radiation, the sky diuse radiation directly intercepted by unit length of a tube can be calculated
by (Tang et al., 2009):
I t;d D1 pI db F ts

where Ih is the horizontal total radiation, hz is the incidence

angle of solar rays on the horizon and calculated by:

12

Fig. 3. Solar water heaters for experiments.

R. Tang et al. / Solar Energy 85 (2011) 13811389

(130 l in the volume), were constructed and tested on the

roof of a six-storey building at the campus of Yunnan
Normal University (25.03N), as seen in Fig. 3. To carry
out a fair comparison, both systems were made identical
as possible in all aspects except the collector tilt-angle with
the one inclined at 22 from the horizon and the other at
46. Comparisons in this work included two experiments,
the one was aimed at investigating eects of the collector
tilt-angle on the daily thermal conversion eciency of systems (referred to as Experiment 1), and the other was
aimed at investigating eects of the collector tilt-angle on
water ow characteristics inside solar tubes (referred to
as Experiment 2). One pyranometer (CM11, Kipp &
Zonen) and a pyrheliomter (TBS-2-2, Jingzhou Sunlight
Co. of China) with an measuring error less than 1% were
employed to measure the horizontal total radiation and
incidence beam radiation, respectively. A PT100 sensor,
positioned inside a standard Steven screen near two solar
water heaters, was used to measure the ambient air temperature. Three PT100 sensors were placed inside the tank of
both SWHs to monitor water temperature variations at different water level with the one at the central level of the
tank and the one below solar tube opening (see Fig. 4).
For the Experiment 1, three PT100 sensors were positioned
in the axial line of a solar tube of both systems to measure
water temperature inside the tube, as shown in Fig. 4.
Whereas for the Experiment 2, three PT100 sensors were
set on the lower wall of a solar tube of both systems with
the one near the sealed end and one near the tube opening
to monitor the inlet water temperature of the solar tube,
another PT100 was set on the upper wall of the tube, near
the tube opening to monitor the outlet water temperature
of the tube, as shown in Fig. 5. All data were collected

1385

Fig. 5. Position of temperature sensors in the SWHs for Experiment 2.

and recorded at intervals of 2 min by a computerized data

logger (TRM-2, Jingzhou Sunlight Co. of China).
Before experiments, all temperature sensors together
with the data logger were calibrated to an absolute measuring error less 0.1 C and a relative deviation between each
other less 0.05 C. In the early morning on the days when
experimental measurements were conducted, collectors
were shaded with polystyrene sheets, tanks were lled with
cold water, and the average value of readings from three
temperature sensors inside the tank was taken as the initial
water temperature of both systems. For the Experiment 1,
the nal water temperature in the storage tank of both systems was measured by draining all hot water inside the
tank into a well-insulated container and then measuring
with a PT100 sensor. To make measurements of Tf accurate, the insulated container before loading the hot water
from tanks was preheated with about 80 C hot water for
5 min to avoid any possible water temperature drop due
to the heat capacity of the container.
The collector of two solar water heaters was oriented 9
east from the south, and solar tubes used in both systems
were provided by Linuo Solar Co., one of the largest enterprises for the production of solar tubes in China, with the
overall heat loss coecient of 0.41 W/m2 K, solar absorptance of 0.907 and transmittance of 0.91. To compare the
thermal performance of both systems under dierent climatic conditions, the Experiment 1 was repeatedly conducted on April and November.
4. Results and discussions
4.1. Eects of collector tilt-angle on the thermal performance
of the SWH

Fig. 4. Position of temperature sensors in the SWHs for Experiment 1.

The experiment done on April 29 of 2010 was taken as

the representative for the analysis of the Experiment 1,

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R. Tang et al. / Solar Energy 85 (2011) 13811389

1200

800

24

Ta

Ib

22
20

600
400

Ih
Ib

18

Ta

16

200

14

Ambient air temperature

1000

Radiation

26

Ih

Measured on April 29, 2010

12
7

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

Solar time
Fig. 6. Climatic data on April 29, 2010.

SWH-22

80

Tt,1
Tt,2
Tt,3
Tw,1
Tw,2
Tw,3

Temperature

70
60
50
40
30

Experiment 1: Measured on April 29,2010

20
7

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

Solar time
Fig. 7. Time variations of water temperature in tubes and tank of the
SWH-22.

70
SWH-46

65
60

Tt,1
Tt,2
Tt,3
Tw,1
Tw,2
Tw,3

Temperature

55
50
45
40
35

much lower than those above tube opening. These results

indicated that the water below tube opening inside the tank
was thermally inactive, and the water above tube opening
was fully thermally mixed. Therefore, to reduce thermal
inactive region inside the tank, the length of solar tubes
within the tank should be short as possible. From the point
of heat removal from solar tubes to the storage tank, water
temperatures in tubes should be higher than those in the
tank, but actually measured values (Tt,1, Tt,2 and Tt,3) were
slightly lower than those in the tank (Tw,2 and Tw,3) for the
SWH-22 (Fig. 7), and this was a result of the fact that the
water after being heated by the wall of solar tubes owed
along the upper wall of tubes, but temperature sensors were
set at the axial line of tubes, leading measured water temperatures in tubes lower than the actual value. For the
SWH-46, the same situation as the SWH-22 was also
observed in the morning, but in the afternoon, readings
of Tt,1, Tt,2 and Tt,3 were almost the same as those of
Tw,2 and Tw,3 (see Fig. 8), indicating that the water inside
tubes was partially or fully thermally mixed.
Time variations of collectible radiation on the collector
of both SWHs, calculated based on the mathematical procedure presented in this work, were presented in Fig. 9. It
indicated that the collector tilt-angle of SWHs had considerably eects on the collectible radiation of systems.
Results listed in Table 1 showed that the daily thermal conversion eciency for the SWH-46 was slightly higher than
that of the SWH-22 due to the lower heat loss to the surroundings resulting from the lower water temperature in
the system, but such dierence was insignicant and both
systems had almost the same value due to small heat loss
from solar tubes. However, daily solar and heat gains of
the SWH-22 were much higher than those of the SWH46 on April 29.
To further compare the thermal performance of both
SWHs in the winter, another comparative experiment was
conducted on December 5 of 2010 (climatic conditions on
the day is presented in Fig. 10). It is seen from the Table 1
that the daily thermal eciency of the SWH-46 was still
slightly higher than that of the SWH-22 but insignicant,

30
25

Calculated based on radiation data measured on April 29 of 2010

Experiment 1: Measured on April 29, 2010

20

1600

15
8

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

1400

17

Solar time
Fig. 8. Time variations of water temperature in tubes and tank of the
SWH-46.

and climatic conditions on the day were presented in Fig. 6.

As shown in Figs. 7 and 8, water temperatures at dierent
place inside tubes (Tt,1, Tt,2 and Tt,3) were almost identical,
and water temperatures above the tube opening inside the
tank (Tw,2 and Tw,3) were also identical for both SWHs,
but the water temperature below tube opening (Tw,1) was

Solar gain (W)

1200
1000
800
600

SWH-22
SWH-46

400
200
7

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

Solar time
Fig. 9. Collectible radiation on the collector of SWHs.

17

R. Tang et al. / Solar Energy 85 (2011) 13811389

SWHs, the collector should be inclined at a tilt-angle for

maximizing its annual collectible radiation.

Items for comparison

SWH-22

SWH-46

Collector tilt-angle
Collector azimuth angle
Water mass in tank (kg)
Number of tubes
B (mm)
L (m)

22
9
118
18
80
1.66

46
9
122
18
80
1.66

April 29, 2010 (d = 14.3)

Ti (C)
Tf (C)
Daily solar gain (MJ)
Daily heat gain (MJ)
gday (%)

24.1
70.6
42.24
22.94
54.3

21.5
60.3
35.86
19.80
55.22

December 5, 2010 (d = 22.3)

Ti(C)
Tf (C)
Daily solar gain (MJ)
Daily heat gain (MJ)
gday (%)

16.9
56.7
35.28
19.63
55.64

16.4
57.7
37.56
21.06
56.08

Ih
Ib

900

Ta

22
Ta

Ib

20

700

500

16

Ih

400

18

600

Ta ( C)

Radiation (W/m )

800

24

14

300
12

Measured on Dec.5, 2010

200

10

100
7

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

Solar time
Fig. 10. Climatic conditions on December 5, 2010.

and this was a result of the fact that the inactive water volume in the tank of SWH-46 was less than that of the SWH22, leading the system operate at lower temperature, as
indicated by Budihardjo and Morrison (2009). This experiment veried once again that the collector tilt-angle of
SWHs had insignicant inuence on the daily thermal conversion eciency of a SWH regardless of climatic conditions due to the good insulation of solar tubes. It is also
seen that the daily solar and heat gains of the SWH-22 were
slightly less than those of the SWH-46 on December 5, but
greatly larger than those of SWH-46 on April 29. This
implied that the annual solar or heat gain of the SWH-22
would be greater than that of the SWH-46 in Kunming
where the site latitude is about 25. In addition, it was
found that the daily thermal conversion eciency of both
systems in the winter was almost equal to that in the summer, indicating that the daily thermal conversion eciency
of the SWH was almost independent of climatic conditions
as a result of lower heat loss to the ambient air. These
results showed that, to maximize the annual heat gain of

4.2. Eects of collector tilt-angle on water ow

characteristics inside solar tubes
To further investigate eects of the collector tilt-angle
on water ow characteristics in tubes, Experiment 2 was
conducted on May 16 of 2010 (climatic conditions on the
day were presented in Fig. 11). Time variations of the water
temperature at dierent place inside the tube of the SWH22 were presented in Fig. 12. It is seen that the inlet water
temperature of solar tubes, Tt,in (Tt,1), was always lowest,
the outlet water temperature, Tt,out (Tt,4), was the highest,
and temperatures Tt,2 and Tt,3, slightly higher than Tt,in
but lower than Tt,out, were almost identical. These results
indicated that cold water from the tank circulated down
to the sealed end along the lower wall of solar tubes and
returned to the tank after being heated by the wall of solar
tubes along the upper wall of solar tubes with a clear water
circulation loop in tubes, as described by Fig. 13. The fact
that temperatures Tt,2 and Tt,3 were almost identical conrmed that there was no inactive region near the sealed
end of solar tubes.
For the SWH-46, the same situation as in the SWH-22
was observed in the morning (as shown in Fig. 14), but
in the afternoon, Tt,out, Tt,2 and Tt,3 were almost the same
but slightly higher than Tt,in, indicating that the water from
the tank on the way circulating down to the sealed end of
solar tubes was partially or fully mixed with the hot water
returning back to the tank without a clear water circulation
loop, as described in Fig. 15. The fact that Tt,out, Tt,2 and
Tt,3 were almost the same but slightly higher than Tt,in also
indicated that the water inside tubes was almost fully thermally mixed in the afternoon except the water near the
opening end because this part of tubes was within the tank
and not exposed to the sunlight, thus no solar heat was
transferred from the tube wall to water by convection.
In the SWH, solar heat gain inside solar tubes was transferred to the tank by thermosiphonic circulation in the

1200

Ih
Ib

1000

Ta

800

Radiation

Table 1
Comparisons between the SWH-22 and SWH-46.

1000

1387

32
Ta

Ih

30
28

Ib

600

26

400

24

200
22

Measured on May 16 of 2010

0
7

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

Solar time
Fig. 11. Climatic conditions in the day for Experiment 2.

20
18

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R. Tang et al. / Solar Energy 85 (2011) 13811389

80
70

SWH-22

Tt,in
Tt,2
Tt,3
Tt,out

Temperature

60
50
40

Experimet 2, Measured on May 16, 2010

30
20
7

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

Solar time
Fig. 12. Water temperatures at dierent place inside the tube of the SWH22.

Fig. 15. Scheme of water ow inside tubes of the SWH-46.

Temperature difference (Tt,out-Tt,in)

4.5

Fig. 13. Scheme of water ow inside tubes of the SWH-22.

4.0
3.5
3.0
2.5
2.0

SWH-46
SWH-22

1.5
1.0

Experiment 2, Measured on May 16 of 2010

0.5
0.0
7

70

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

Solar time
SWH-46

Temperature

60

Fig. 16. Water temperature dierence between the inlet and outlet of solar
tubes.

Tt,in
Tt,2
Tt,3
Tt,out

50

40

30

Experiment 2, Measured on May 16, 2010

20
7

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

Solar time
Fig. 14. Water temperatures at dierent place inside the tube of the SWH46.

system, thus water temperature dierence between the inlet

and outlet was a key indication to show the performance of
the heat removal from tubes to tank. Results presented in
Fig. 16 indicated that the water temperature dierence
between the inlet and outlet was considerably small for

both SWH-22 and SWH-46, indicating that the heat transfer in such system was considerably ecient. It was also
seen from Fig. 16 that, for the SWH-22, such temperature
dierence was stable in all the day, indicating that the water
ow in tubes was laminar and stable. However, for the
SWH-46, the temperature dierence was higher in the
morning and lower in the afternoon, indicating that
the temperature rise of water inside tubes decreased with
the increase in the inlet water temperature of tubes. This
is because that the mixing between the cold water from
the storage tank and the hot water returning back to the
storage tank was weak in the morning (see Fig. 14), making
the temperature rise higher, but in the afternoon, such mixing became intense, resulting in the water temperature difference between the inlet and outlet decrease because the
hot water on the way returning back to the tank was cooled

R. Tang et al. / Solar Energy 85 (2011) 13811389

1389

by the cold water from the tank by mixing. This nding

indicated that for the SWH-46, with the increase in the inlet
water temperature, the mixing between cold water from the
storage tank and hot water returning to the storage tank
became more intense. Together with results shown in
Figs. 12 and 14, a conclusion could be drawn that increasing the collector tilt-angle had no positive eect on the heat
removal from tubes to the tank and the thermosiphon circulation of water inside solar tubes. This nding was also
highly agreed with the nding observed by Huo et al.
(1991) that, with the increase in collector tilt-angle, more
cold water on the way to the sealed end of tubes would
directly return back to tank and never reached the sealed
end.

the water inside tubes. No noticeable inactive region near

the sealed end of solar tubes for both systems was observed
in experiments.

5. Conclusions

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Tang, R.S., Li, Z.M., Xia, C.F., Lan, Q., 2006. Assessment of uncertainty
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Experimental results revealed that the collector tilt-angle

of SWHs had signicant inuences on the daily collectible
radiation and daily solar heat gain of a system, but insignificant on the heat removal from solar tubes to the water
storage tank and the daily solar thermal conversion eciency. Results also showed that the daily thermal eciency
of SWHs was almost independent of the climatic conditions as a result of lower heat loss from solar tubes to
the ambient air. These ndings indicated that, to maximize
the annual heat gain of such solar water heaters, the collector should be inclined at a tilt-angle for maximizing its
annual collection of solar radiation. Experiments also
showed that, for the SWH-22, the cold water from the storage tank circulated down to the sealed end along the lower
wall of tubes and then returned to the storage tank along
the upper wall of solar tubes with a clear water circulation
loop; whereas for the SWH-46, the situation in the morning
was the same as the SWH-22, but in the afternoon, the cold
water from the storage tank on the way circulating down to
the sealed end of tubes was partially or fully mixed with the
hot water returning to the storage tank without a clear
water circulation loop. Results also showed that for the
SWH-46, with the increase in the inlet water temperature
of solar tubes, the mixing between cold water from the tank
and hot water returning to the tank became more intense.
These indicated that increasing the collector tilt-angle of
SWHs had no positive eect on the heat removal from
tubes to the tank and the thermosiphonic circulation of

Acknowledgements
This work was conducted with nancial supports from
National Natural Science Foundation of China
(51066007) and Program for Changjiang Scholars and
Innovative Team in University. In addition, authors would
like to take this opportunity to thank Linou Solar Co. for
the support.
References