Abstract

Solar air heaters are renewable, active heating devices that use an absorber plate, a collector and an air blower to heat a space under consideration. They are meant to aid the existing heating devices and not replace it. In conventional solar air heaters, there is absorption of solar radiation by the black absorber plate and used to heat the air beneath it which is made to flow using a blower and heat is used to warm the space. In this study, the conventional solar air heater is modified with the help solar water heating system with a reflector which aids in extra heat gain by the absorber plate of Solar air heater which in turn heats the air to a higher temperature. Study was conducted over a three-day period between 10:00 to 18:00 hours and average meteorological and input values were taken. There was 48% increase in amount of heat gain by the solar air heater while the increased in efficiency of the solar air heater is nearly one and a half times than the conventional solar air heater which was the aim of the study. This modified solar air heaters could be useful in industrial as well as domestic applications as it is more efficient.