Effect of Water Mass on Triangular Pyramid Solar Still Using Phase Change Material as Storage Medium

Abstract In this paper the effect of water mass on the performance of triangular pyramid solar still with and without latent heat energy storage was experimentally investigated. For comparing the productivity of solar still with and without LHTESS a solar still is designed, fabricated. Experiments are conducted in hot and humid climate of Chennai, India. It is found that there is an increase of production of fresh water with decrease in water mass. There is an increase of about 35% in production of fresh water with LHTESS than that of solar still without LHTESS. Also it was found that during the off shine period the fresh water produced from the still is higher compared to higher water mass. The solar still with and without LHTESS were found to be 5.5 L/m2day and 3.5 L/m2day.