A Study of Innovative Structural Design for Solar Water Heater Combining with Thermoelectric Generators

• Main Authors: Gui-Sheng Zhang, 張貴盛
• Other Authors: Ching-Wu Wang
• Format: Others
• Language: en_US
• Published: 2011
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/48770219470302057535

碩士 === 國立中正大學 === 光機電整合工程研究所 === 99 === Currently, there are different methods for exploiting this solar resource such as solar electricity, solar thermal, and solar-derived fuel from biomass, which provide the primary energy source for over a billion people. Solar water heating systems appear to be one of the prominent technologies for the exploitation of solar energy and getting popularity since they are relatively inexpensive and simple to fabricate and maintain. However, too small portion of thermal energy is hard to be absorbed by water when the solar water heater is under working, and thus becomes a wasted heat-dissipation in the environment. The thermoelectric generators supply a good way to use solar thermal energy. It is efficient for economic and developing energy that utilize the thermoelectric generators to change the solar thermal energy into electric energy. Based on the statement mentioned in the above, the innovative structural design for solar water heater combining with thermoelectric generators is proposed and experimentally studied. Different convection methods, including natural convection, forced convention, and semi-natural/semi-forced convection, are observed in temperature difference of solar collectors. Moreover, the numbers of thermoelectric generator for the effects of thermoelectric conversion efficiency (η) are also discussed. The obtained results show that semi-natural/semi-forced convection can provide the highest temperature difference (42℃) of solar collectors. Furthermore, the η of thermoelectric generators is measured above 2.2%.