Performance investigation of an innovative design of a small sized single glazed solar PV/T water collector for the climatic condition of a site in North East India: An experimental study

Abstract

ABSTRACT The poor conversion efficiency of a photovoltaic module (PV) has always been a major concern around the world, which is generally caused due to overheating under hot climatic conditions. As a result, the concept of photovoltaic thermal collector (PV/T) has evolved to overcome the problem of overheating by utilizing the heat in other thermal applications. In the present study, an innovative design of a small-sized single-glazed PV/T water collector with a sine-squared profile has been proposed and experimentally investigated under the climatic conditions of a site in the North-East part of India. The experiments were performed at a fixed mass flow rate of 2 LPM and at a fixed inlet temperature for a particular tilt angle of 39º. The thermal, electrical, and primary energy-saving efficiency of the collector has been evaluated for a whole day from 10.00 a.m. to 3.00 p.m. A maximum thermal efficiency of 73.40% and an electrical efficiency of 10.59% were achieved, which indicates better overall performance of the PV/T collector under the climatic condition of North-East India. The results of the present study were also compared with the studies of previous researchers and it was found that the present design has better thermal and electrical efficiency.