Monday, April 27, 2009

Solar Water Heater using Vacuum Tubes

Solar Water Heater using Vacuum Tubes. This video shows the power of solar water heating which is 10 times more efficient that solar panels (PV). At 58 degrees, the solar hot water collector is steaming with a temperature of 220 farenheit inside.

2 comments:

graceonline said...

I feel like such a dunce, but I don't understand this video. I'm sure it makes perfect sense to techies in the industry, but I'm a lay person. Would love to see some copy that explains what we are seeing and how it supports the statement.

Anonymous said...

Well, as I understand it what they do is take a large clear glass tube and then place a smaller tube painted black inside. They seal the space between the two tubes and make a vacuum. This makes the tube act like a thermos and trap heat or cold on the inside because the vacuum does not conduct heat.

When you place them in the sun the light travels through the glass and the vacuum to the inner black tube which gets progressively hotter.

Often used to heat water, many people are experimenting with ways to use it to generate power at an efficiency greater than a traditional Solar Panel.

They have also been used as a step to sterilize water for consumption in the field.