ABSTRACT

Over time, man has developed different means of heating using technology with different energy sources.  Solar water heating system is one of the technologies used to achieve this heating. A solar water heating system produces hot water using thermal energy obtained from the Sun.

The chosen concept for this project works by means of natural convection. In this setup, water in a cylindrical storage tank is made to flow to copper piping on top of a black coated aluminium material enclosed in a rectangular wooden box with a glass covering. The black body absorbs sunlight energy and heat the copper piping at the bottom surface containing water. The heated water becomes less dense and flows back into the cylindrical tank.

Results from tests carried within a period of four days in the month of December; when the weather was quit dry and mostly sunny showed an increase in temperature of hot water obtained from 9:00a.m up to 4:00p.m. It was observed that for an initial temperature of water of 26°C on the first day, a maximum temperature rise and heat absorbed of 3°C and 378KJ respectively was attained at 1.00p.m. On the second day, an initial temperature of water of 27°C was observed with a maximum temperature rise and heat absorbed of 3°C and 378KJ respectively obtained at 1.00p.m, etc. The results for the four days of testing were recorded, analyzed and compared to obtain the average peak temperature of 32.5°C for heating water during the period of testing (December, 2022).