Experimental study on depth of paraffin wax over floating absorber plate in built-in storage solar water heater

The aim of this article is to study the effect of depth of phase change material over the absorber surface of an integrated collector-storage type flat plate solar water heater. Flat plate solar water heaters are extensively used all over the world to utilize the natural source of solar energy. In order to utilize the solar energy during off-sunshine hours, it is inevitable to store and retain solar thermal energy as long as possible. Here, phase change material is not used for heat storage, but to minimize losses during day and night time only. The depth of phase change material over a fixed depth of water in a solar thermal collector is an important geometric parameter that influences the maximum temperature rise during peak solar irradiation and hence the losses. From the results of the studies for different masses of paraffin wax phase change material layers, the optimum depth corresponding to the maximum heat gain till evening is found to be 2 mm, and the heat retention till the next day morning is found to be 4 mm.