Solar Air Heaters with Thermal Heat Storages

Abstract

Solar energy can be converted into different forms of energy, either to thermal energy or to electrical energy. Solar energy is converted directly into electrical power by photovoltaic modules, while solar collector converts solar energy into thermal energy. Solar collector works by absorbing the direct solar radiation and converting it into thermal energy, which can be stored in the form of sensible heat or latent heat or a combination of sensible and latent heats. A theoretical study has been carried out to rate the various thermal energy storage commonly used in solar air heaters. During the investigations rock bed storages have been found to be low type thermal heat storage, while phase change materials have been found to be high heat thermal storages. Besides this, a few other heat storing materials have been studied and discussed for lower to higher ratings in terms of thermal performance purposely for solar heaters.