Solar collector is the most important aspect of any solar water heating system. However, solar vacuum tubes play an integral part in solar power production; but were more expensive than other flat panel counterparts. With the increasing demand of solar energy and modern manufacturing technologies, the solar vacuum tubes offer the greatest return on investment than other solar collector systems. https://www.apsense.com/article/understanding-different-solar-vacuum-tubes.html
A solar collector works like an engine of any solar water heating system. Solar vacuum tubes are very much efficient in producing solar powered systems. The vacuum tubes work similarly like the coffee thermos. The vacuum tubes comprise of two glass layers with vacuum in between the layers. The outer layer of the tube is made from Borosilicate glass, which has very low iron content. The Borosilicate glass allows around 98% light energy to enter. The second layer is applied with special coating.
These heat tubes use open vacuum tubes. Water fills up the inner vacuum tube and gets heated internally by the sun likewise liquid in a thermos. Generally, warm water is lighter than cold water. That’s why it rises up to the top of the tube where it fills the collector.The heavier cold water goes to the bottom of the vacuum tube to take the place of heated water which will be heated again by the solar energy. This is a natural phenomenon, known as thermo-siphoning. The main reason behind using this heat system is that no expensive copper piping is used, making open tubes much more cost effective.
The job of solar heating collector is very simple – it need to sit in the sun to absorb the heat and transfer it to where you require it. To accomplish this task efficiently, solar heating collectors must soak up and retain a large quantity of sunlight daily. There’re 2 main solar heating technologies that are in used today - the Solar Flat Panels, and Solar Evacuated Tubes. Both these technologies have been time tested and therefore, there has been always a debate over which technology is best.
Solar vacuum tubes are usually less sensitive to sun angle & orientation than plat panel collectors. Their spherical design lets sunlight to pass at a favourable angle all through the day – from sunrise to dusk.
On the other hand, flat panel collectors are more sensitive to sun angle, and may need the use of racking system to make the most of their production.
When not sure about which technology to execute, talk to your local dealer or get in touch with Northern Lights directly. Being a leading supplier of Vacuum tube solar water heaters and solar flat panel collectors, we would be happy to check out both technologies and recommend which is best fit for your particular application.
Northern Lights Solar Solutions is the leading supplier of solar energy heating systems, including solar vacuum tubes and evacuated heat pipe solar collector in Canada .
