1. Construction and Testing of One-Reflector Solar Oven for Solar Panel Lamination
- Author
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E. Osarolube, Anthony Chibuike Ohajianya, O. E Abumere, and C. A Madu
- Subjects
Maximum temperature ,Materials science ,business.industry ,Reflector (antenna) ,Edge (geometry) ,Solar irradiance ,computer.software_genre ,law.invention ,Load testing ,Optics ,law ,Thermal ,Lamination ,Figure of merit ,business ,computer - Abstract
A one-reflector solar oven for solar panel lamination was constructed using locally available and low cost materials. The oven was tested for thermal performance through three tests. The first test was a no load test with the oven positioned to face 180 0 S. This test produced a maximum oven laminating platen temperature of 118 0 C at an ambient temperature of 33 0 C and solar irradiance of 1046W/m 2 . A second no-load test was carried out with the oven being turned every 30 minutes to face the sun through a method which we discovered and termed manual shadow tracking. Manual shadow tracking is a method of turning a box type solar oven to face the sun by aligning the bottom edge of the oven with the edge of the oven's shadow. The second no-load test produced a maximum temperature of 124 0 C at an ambient temperature of 36 0 C and solar irradiance of 1010W/m 2 . With these values, the first figure of merit for the oven was calculated as 0.09. A third test which was carried out with the oven loaded with a solar panel to be laminated, produced a maximum temperature of 110.5 0 C at an ambient temperature of 35 0 C and solar irradiance of 1021W/m 2 . A 160W solar panel was
- Published
- 2014
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