The pulsed-flow design: A new low-cost solar collector

Abstract

A new pulsed-flow design of hose-based solar collector is presented, which uses a long hose connected to district-grid water in the same way that the basic hose design does. But on contrary that this last, here the exit is not connected directly to consumption and instead the hot water flow is controlled by a thermostat that purges the hose to an insulated tank every time it reaches the desired temperature. So, this water-pond collector works close its maximum efficiency along the day and minimizes nocturnal cooling effect, improving noticeably the performance of the original hose design. As was demonstrated by thermal modeling, this new pulsed-flow design could satisfy the domestic demand of sanitary hot water even in high-latitude locations and furthermore, its performance could be noticeably improved by adding a smart microcontroller. The economic analysis shows this design could be highly competitive applied to large hot-water demands and relatively good for single family demands.