Investigation of tungsten halogen lamp for possible usage as heat source for testing solar collector

Abstract

Artificial sunlight is a heat source in solar collector testing, where the light intensity and ambient conditions are controlled to provide uniformity in each test. In this study, twenty-five tungsten halogen lamps of 300 W 220 V were investigated for possible usage as the heat source. The experiment was conducted by varying the height of the lamps to the light field (Hd). The EN-12975–2 Standard was used to control the quality of the heat source on the light field. The results showed that the average light intensity (Iavg) decreased with an increase in Hd. When Hd was low, the %uniformity values (%uxy) met the criteria. The small light field area met the EN-12975–2 Standard better than the large area. A comparison of solar collector testing under a heat source from tungsten halogen lamps and natural sunlight was subsequently performed, and the experimental results were in accordance with the EN-12975–2 Standard. A single-channel flat plate solar collector was used as the test device and air was used as the working fluid. The experimental results revealed that the solar collector thermal efficiency (ηavg) trends were similar for both the heat source from tungsten halogen lamps and natural sunlight testing. A low %uxy resulted in a ηavg that was more similar to that of natural sunlight.

Keywords

• Solar simulator
• EN-12975–2 Standard
• Light intensity
• Uniformity value
• Thermal efficiency