Experimental analysis of the performance of a solar flat plate water heater with and without internal fins

Generally increasing, an increase in the surface area will increase the heat transfer capability of a solar collector and possibly its efficiency. Conventional solar water heaters have longitudinal fins attached externally to the collector tubes for reaping the benefits of enhanced heat transfer. Attempts have been made towards providing internal fins (spirally grooved copper tubes), in addition to the existing external fins for analysing its influence on efficiency and outlet temperature. Two identical solar water heaters with a capacity of 25 L per day were designed and fabricated, one with a collector with plain (unfinned) internals and another with internal grooving (finned tube). The paper details the temperature profile observed in the two collectors, variation of thermo-siphon mechanism and change in efficiency of the solar water heaters with respect to time. It has been observed that providing internal fins had led to an increase in efficiency of about 4.5% as compared to conventional plain tubes. © 2016 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.