Experimental study on the heat gain of water in hybrid solar collector integrated with fin-and-tube heat exchanger with respect to air and water flow rate

Solar assisted heat pump system is the system using solar thermal energy that can lead to the improvement of performance of heat pump by transferring solar thermal energy obtained from solar collector to evaporator of the heat pump for evaporation of refrigerant. In traditional system, solar collector can get a thermal energy only from solar radiation. So, the collector is hard to be used when the solar radiation is not enough such as cloudy day or night even though these collector take up much space. Thus the hybrid solar collector that has fin- and-tube heat exchanger have been developed for getting a thermal energy from not only solar radiation but also ambient air. Due to the fin-and-tube heat exchanger, this collector can get a thermal energy from ambient air for heating chilled water by evaporation of refrigerant in heat pump system. At this time, heat gain of water from ambient air by the collector needs to be confirmed before combining with real heat pump system. Thus, in this study, heat gain of water in the hybrid solar collector was investigated experimentally with respect to air and water flow rate on the various temperature difference between inlet air and water. As a results, heat gain of water was shown maximum value of 900W and it was increased with increment of air and water flow rate. Also, heat gain of water was changed linearly with increment or decrement of temperature difference between inlet air and water on the specific air and water flow rate. Furthermore, relationship between heat gain of water and operating conditions was also confirmed that can be used for decision of collector area and heat pump capacity for designing solar assisted heat pump integrated with this collector.