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F.A.Q.: Flat Plate vs Vacuum Tube - What's the best choice for your solar project?

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W a t e r l o o , Ontario March 2 0 0 8

As the solar industry continues to emerge and grow into a more viable industry, one of the most common misconceptions and confusions relates to the performance difference between flat plate and vacuum tube collectors. Claims of vastly superior performance may lead some to believe that vacuum tube collectors are magical devices that can defy the laws of physics. This can be confusing for customers who are trying to decide which solar technology is best for them. With many products being imported into Canada from Europe and Asia, there is often no common approval body or performance standard that allows for objective comparison. This article will look at the construction and performance differences between flat plate and vacuum tube collectors, and the best applications for each. Flat plate collectors are constructed very much like a small greenhouse. A square frame with a glass cover houses the copper or aluminum absorber sheet through which the solar fluid is pumped. Mineral fiber insulation on the back and side of the frame is used to keep heat loss from the absorber to a minimum. Vacuum tube collectors do not rely on traditional insulation to reduce the heat loss, but instead use the insulating properties of a vacuum sealed air space. As you know from your old thermos bottle, a sealed evacuated airspace is one of nature's greatest insulators. Both conductive and convective heat losses are greatly reduced in a vacuum. The solar absorber sheet of a vacuum tube collector is suspended inside of the vacuum sealed glass tube. These differences in the insulating methods are the main fundamental difference between flat and vacuum tube collectors. There are 2 basic vacuum tube designs: the heat pipe and the direct flow, with the main difference being whether the solar fluid goes through the header of the collector, or through pipes inside each vacuum tube. Both types of vacuum tube collectors have very similar performance characteristics. Because of there simplicity, flat plate collectors are generally much less expensive to produce than vacuum tube collectors. To truly understand the performance differences between the t w o collector types, we must understand the factors that effect solar collector efficiency. Either type of collector starts out with the same amount of solar radiation falling on it. A collector then has two types of losses: Optical losses and Thermal losses. Optical loss is solar radiation that reflects off the outer or inner layer of the glass glazing. Because of the round shape of their glass, vacuum tube collectors tend to have slightly higher optical losses than flat plate. Both types of collectors have optical losses of approximately 18-22% of the incoming solar radiation. The remaining radiation that passes through the glass hits the absorber sheet where it is captured and transferred to the solar fluid. This absorbed radiation is now subject to thermal losses. The amount of thermal losses will vary from zero up to 60%. How much thermal loss a collector experiences is influenced by three factors: ambient air temperature, collector fluid temperature and the collectors insulating properties. Any collector manufactured will have its efficiency plotted on a collector efficiency chart (See fig 1). The chart shows the performance of the collector taking into account all of the optical and thermal losses. The efficiency of any collector is dynamic, constantly changing when the ambient air temperature changes, and with collector fluid temperature rising.
Flat plate vs Vacuum tube.doc 1

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Now what does all this have to do with comparing vacuum tube and flat plate collector performance? It all comes back to collector thermal losses. Comparing the i , , o collector efficiency curves of a typical flat plate and Vacuum tube vacuum tube collector you can see that as the collector temperature difference between the ambient air and i \ collector fluid (Tambiam - T i i u i d ) increases the flat plate curve drops off at a greater rate. This is due to the Flat plate collector superior insulating properties of the vacuum air space 10 compared to the mineral insulation. So the performance difference between flat and vacuum tube 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 T e m p e r a t u r e d i f f e r e n c e IC"> b e t w e e n a m b i e n t am a n d collectors depends on when you are comparing them. collector fluid ( T ,,-T ,, ) At times with warm air temperatures and/or low fluid Solar system typical opera liig range: temperatures (small temperature difference) there is O Solar DHW or Solar indoor pool heattng Solar DHW with high volar traction almost no difference in efficiency. At times with cold Solar lor DHW and Space heating ftripfemeW O Sola tor process heating or Solar air condition* ig air temperatures and/or high fluid temperatures then there can be up to a 30% or higher difference. In the summer months flat and vacuum collectors will perform almost the same, while in the winter the vacuum tube will perform better. If vacuum tube and flat plate were the same price then vacuum tube might be the preferred choice in most applications. But with the higher cost of vacuum tubes, then you have to look carefully at the application to see if vacuum tubes can be justified. In many solar applications especially DHW heating, simply increasing flat plate collector area will yield the same annual energy output as a vacuum tube collector for much less initial cost. For most DHW applications where the load is relatively consistent all year round, flat plate collectors most often yield the best bang for the buck. Indoor pools also are best served by using flat plate collectors due to the low fluid temperature requirements and constant year round loads. Vacuum tube collectors are well suited for applications that occur when ambient air temperatures are low, or where solar fluid temperatures are high. Combined DHW - space heating supplement systems will often use vacuum tubes to try and capture the maximum amount of solar radiation during cold winter months. Another emerging application for vacuum tube collectors is solar cooling systems which use solar thermal energy to drive an absorption chiller system. Very high fluid temperatures up to 90C are required, making vacuum tube collectors the best collector choice.
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When comparing different collectors, it is also important to understand how collector areas are published by manufacturers. Collector areas are stated 3 ways: Gross area, aperture area and absorber area. With flat plate collectors the gross area is usually viry close to the aperture and absorber areas. However with vacuum tube collectors the absorber and aperture area" canbe much less than the gross area (see fig 2). , When comparing collectors, and for sizing systems purposes, the aperture area is the dimension to use,*

Flat plate vs Vacuum tube.doc

VI E | MANN

Unbiased performance data is important when comparing any product available in the marketplace. With solar panels this can sometimes be difficult with products coming from North America, Europe and Asia. Performance data in manufacturers data sheets may be difficult to compare due to the different testing standards used, and different units used. One way to compare solar products fairly equally is to use the ratings produced by the Solar Rating and Certification Corporation. The SRCC tests and certifies collector and packaged system performance for solar products sold in the USA. All collector test results are published in the "Directory of SRCC certified Solar collector ratings", which can be downloaded from www.solar-ratings.org. Each collector has a Collector Thermal Performance Rating chart, which lists the expected daily Btu production per collector, under a variety of solar radiation levels, and with different ambient air and fluid temperature differences. These charts will allow you to really see the differences in the collector thermal losses when comparing flat and vacuum tube collectors. You can also see that with clear sky radiation and warm air temperatures the performance of a flat plate collector is tough to beat.

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There are several other factors that differentiate flat and vacuum tube collector, and these can also come into play when deciding on a collector type. Additional factors that may steer you to a flat or vacuum tube collector include: Roof area available, wind loading, handling and assembly, and collector array piping for larger scale systems. There are really no absolute rules when choosing solar collectors, as ultimately a flat or vacuum tube collector can be used for any solar application. Understanding the technical differences and de-mystifying some of the manufacturer claims and product data, will help you to make the best, and most cost effective choice, for your solar application.

Flat plate vs Vacuum tube.doc