The radiant energy incident on the earth's surface on a sunny day is roughly 900 W/m2 . Collecting and focusing sunlight and using the focused beam to heat a fluid is an old idea, and as the environmental costs of fossil-fuel combustion mount, solar heating becomes an increasingly attractive alternative. Suppose a house is to be designed that will have a circulating forced-air central-heating unit, and solar energy is contemplated as a heat source (backed up with a conventional furnace to be used on cloudy days). If air is to be fed at a rate of 1000 m3 /min at 20°C and 1 atm, and the air is to be heated to 55°C before being discharged into the living space, what is the required area of the solar collector plates? Assume 30% of the radiant energy incident on the plates is used to heat the air.
The radiant energy incident on the earth's surface on a sunny day is roughly 900 W/m2
.
Collecting and focusing sunlight and using the focused beam to heat a fluid is an old idea,
and as the environmental costs of fossil-fuel combustion mount, solar heating becomes an
increasingly attractive alternative.
Suppose a house is to be designed that will have a circulating forced-air central-heating unit,
and solar energy is contemplated as a heat source (backed up with a conventional furnace to
be used on cloudy days). If air is to be fed at a rate of 1000 m3
/min at 20°C and 1 atm, and
the air is to be heated to 55°C before being discharged into the living space, what is the
required area of the solar collector plates? Assume 30% of the radiant energy incident on the
plates is used to heat the air.
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