II.3.
Evacuated tube collector (ETC)
Conventional simple flat-plate solar collectors were developed for use in sunny warm
climates. Their benefits, however, are greatly reduced when conditions become
unfavorable during cold, cloudy, and windy days. Furthermore, weathering influences,
such as condensation and moisture, cause early deterioration of internal materials, resulting
in reduced performance and system failure.
In fact, the single most important factor affecting the efficiency of flat-plate solar heat
collectors is the heat loss through the top cover.
The vacuum tube heat collectors invented by William L. R. Emmet in 1911 could in
principle completely resolve the problem of top-cover heat loss.
Evacuated tube collectors operate differently than the other collectors available on the
market. These solar collectors consist of a heat pipe inside a vacuum-sealed tube, as shown
in figure II.16 (left). In an actual installation, many tubes are connected to the same
manifold as shown in figure II.16 (right).
Figure II.16. Indirect-flow system schematic diagram of an thermosiphon
evacuated tube collector (left) and actual ETC installation (right).
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Figure II.17 may exhibit more details about the structure of the tubes
Figure II.17. (a) Structure of ETC and (b) photograph of the collector.
Evacuated tube collectors consist of a heat pipe inside a vacuum-sealed tube
ETCs use liquid–vapor phase change materials! to transfer heat at high efficiency.
At the center is a sealed heat pipe typically made of copper (a highly efficient thermal
conductor) placed inside a vacuum-sealed glass tube.
A small amount of volatile liquid is in the metal tube, typically water.
The pipe is connected with metal fins, covered with selective absorption coatings
(black copper absorber plate).
A metal tip attached to the sealed tube (condenser) protrudes from the top of each
tube.
The heat pipe contains a small amount of fluid (e.g. water, methanol, glycol …etc) that
undergoes an evaporating–condensing cycle. In this cycle, solar heat evaporates the liquid and
the vapor travels to the heat sink region, where it condenses and releases its latent heat to the
manifold (heat exchanger). The condensed fluid returns to the solar collector and the process
is repeated.
The fluid through the manifold and picks up the heat from the tubes. The heated liquid
circulates through another heat exchanger and gives off its heat to a process or water stored in
a solar storage tank.
Evacuated-tube solar energy collectors are used primarily for direct-flow solar water
heaters. However, the hot water could be contaminated by the system, and the pressure comes
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directly from gravitation. For systems requiring pressurized hot water and more stringent
sanitation, indirect-flow thermosiphon solar heat collectors are used.
Another possibility is to use the ETC connected directly to a hot water storage tank as
shown II.18 (see also figure I.6 of chapter I).
Figure II.18. Solar water heater with thermosiphon collectors. (a) Design of a tank-
integrated solar water heater and (b) a photo of a system on a roof after more than 10
years of operation (No degradation is observed).
The characteristics of atypical collector are shown in table II.4
Table II.4. Characteristics of Typical Evacuated Tube Collector System
Figure II.18 compares the performance of solar water heaters using flat-panel collectors
and evacuated-tube collectors.
Figure II.18. Performance comparison of flat-panel (ThermoDynamics S42-P) and evacuated-
tube collectors (SunMaxx 20EVT).
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First, Sunny weather are better than cloudy weather due to the solar irradiance
For sunny weather and low difference temperature, the flat-panel system clearly has an
advantage because of the high value of absorption area. The same reason for partly cloudy
and cloudy climates
For all weathers and high difference temperature, the evacuated-tube
system is superior because convection, radiation and conduction losses are almost eliminated,
though, the high value of absorption area of flat collectors. Furthermore, high-performance
selective absorption coating can be used because there is no requirement of air stability, and
the radiation loss becomes more negligible.
It should be noted that the heat loss observed here for vacuum-tube systems is due to
the heat loss of the water tank.
II.3.1. Other ETCs systems
II.3.1.1. All-Glass Vacuum-Tube Collectors
The most popular solar water heater is the direct-flow system using all-glass evacuated
tube solar heat collectors (see figure I.6 of chapter I)
ETCs on the market exhibit many variations in absorber shape. One such design, presented
recently in an attempt to reduce cost and increase lifetime, shown in figure II.19 (All-Glass
Vacuum-Tube Collectors).
Figure II.19. Modern evacuated-tube solar thermal collector: All-Glass Vacuum-Tube
Collectors
It is made of two concentric glass tubes sealed at one end
The space in between is evacuated to a medium high vacuum (to better more than 10−4
Pa, or 10−6 Torr).
A metal spacer is placed between the tubes to support the tubes and as a source for
getter, typically a mixture of barium and titanium. After being sealed, the getter support is
heated from outside using microwave power to evaporate the getter onto the inner surface of
the glass tubes. A high vacuum thus can be maintained.
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A selective absorption coating is applied on the outer surface of the inner glass tube.
Therefore, the selective coating is always under high vacuum.
This system shows some advantages such as:
It is made entirely of glass and it is not necessary to penetrate the glass envelope to
extract heat from the tube, eliminating leakage losses and keeping it cheaper than the single-
envelope system. The system can be mass produced at very low cost. To date, 200 million
evacuated tubes are produced annually in China.
The selective coating is always under high vacuum. Therefore, it has a significant
advantage over the flat-panel heat collector as a selective coating stable in air is not required
and the coating could stay intact virtually forever. So, high-performance selective absorption
coating can be used.
Furthermore, an antireflection film can be applied on top of the selective absorption
coating even if the film is not stable in air.
As mentioned above, the performance of the evacuated-tube system is superior for
cloudy weather and high difference temperature.
However, there are some drawbacks in this type, including;
These are suitable only for low-pressure systems and have the disadvantages that the
tubes cannot be drained. !!
If one tube breaks, all the working fluid may be lost!!
Reduced absorbing surface
An important consideration is that the absorbing area is much reduced than 1 for vacuum
tube collectors, because the diameter of the inner tube determines the absorption area, and
when the tubes are installed on a system, there should be spacing between adjacent outer
tubes. Typically the space is 20 mm. The typical absorbing area is ≈ 0.6 (exercise de TD!!).
In fact, the smaller surface actually is not a serious disadvantage because of :
First, in residential applications, there is sometimes more roof space than needed.
Second, an important consideration is the cost of the solar thermal energy collector.
Because there is empty space between the tubes, there is no additional cost.
Third, because of the empty space, there is no additional weight on the roof.
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II.3.1.2. Evacuated tubes with CPC reflectors
Evacuated tubes with CPC reflectors (CPC: Compound Parabolic Collectors) are also
commercialized by several manufacturers.
The cost-effectiveness of the evacuated tube collectors can be improved by reducing
the number of tubes and using reflectors to concentrate the solar radiation onto the tubes.
A diffuse reflector (reflectivity, = 0.6) mounted behind the tubes, spaced one tube
diameter apart, as shown in figure II.20 (a), increases the absorbed energy in each tube by
more than 25% for normal incidence. This system also presents a 10% increase in energy
collection over a full day because of incidence angle effects
Greater enhancement per tube can be achieved by using CPC-type reflectors, as shown
in Figure II.20 (b). Evacuated tube arrays with stationary concentrators may have stagnation
temperatures exceeding 300°C.
Figure II.20. Evacuated tube collectors array with reflectors. (a) Flat diffuse reflector. (b)
CPC reflector.
Another type of collector developed recently is the integrated compound parabolic
collector (ICPC). This is an ETC in which, at the bottom part of the glass tube, a reflective
material is fixed. In this case, either a CPC reflector, Figure II.21 (a), or a cylindrical
reflector, Figure II.22 (b), is used.
Figure I.22. Integrated CPC tubes: (a) Internal compound parabolic. (b) Circular reflector with
finned absorber.
